SEP  27  1918 


BV  3790  .T7  1918 
Trumbull,  Charles  G.  1872- 

1941. 
What  is  the  gospel 


SEP  hi  1918 


?f. 


^i?/il4LSti^\^ 


What  is  the  Gospel? 


STRAIGHTFORWARD   TALKS 
ON   EVANGELISM 


By 

CHARLES  GALLAUDET' TRUMBULL 

Editor  of  The  Sunday  School  Times 


THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  TIMES  CO. 

PHILADELPHIA 


Copyright,   1918,  by 
The  Sunday  School  Times  Company 


The  price  of  this  book,  is  35  cents,  in  paper; 
or    50   cents,    in    cloth    binding;    postpaid. 


CONTENTS 


Page 

A   Foreword S 

By  Arthur  J.  Smith,  D.D.,  General  Secretary  of 
the  Evangelistic  Committee  of  New  York  City. 

I.    Why  Men  Are  Lost 9 

Sin  and  Its  Consequences 

11.    How  Men  Are  Saved 15 

God's  Part  in  Salvation 

III.  How  Men  Are  Saved - 27 

Man's  Part  in  Salvation 

IV.  What  Is  Salvation? 41 

Past,  Present,  and  Future 

V.    Salvation's  Forward  Look 55 

The  Blessed  Hope 

VI.     Salvation  From  Sin  Now 69 

The  Victorious  Life 

Books  and  pamphlets  recommended  for  further 
study  are  mentioned  on  pages  78,  79,  and  80. 


A   FOREWORD 

By  the  General  Secretary  of  the  Evangelistic 
Committee  of  New  York  City 

HAVING  learned  that  the  laymen  of 
Great  Britain  were  unusually  active  in 
evangelistic  endeavor,  I  crossed  the  At- 
lantic in  1909  to  make  a  study  of  the  work  they 
were  doing.  To  my  surprise,  I  learned  that 
there  were  less  than  10,000  ordained  preachers 
and  over  50,000  unordained  preachers  in  the 
non-conformist  churches.  I  found  an  organiza- 
tion in  London  with  about  400  members  who 
were  available  for  evangelistic  work  at  the  week- 
ends, at  their  own  charges.  Some  of  these  men 
were  members  of  the  House  of  Lords  and  the 
House  of  Commons.  They  were  bankers,  bar- 
risters, manufacturers,  merchants,  etc.  I  found 
another  organization  with  about  750  members 
who  were  available  for  open-air  meetings.  There 
were  similar  organizations  throughout  England, 
Scotland,  and  Ireland. 

During  the  voyage  home  I  asked  God  to  help 
me  contribute  a  little  at  least  toward  encourag- 
ing lay  workers  in  New  York  City  to  engage  in 
aggressive  evangelistic  work.  Realizing  the 
truth  of  the  old  adage,  "It  is  difficult  to  teach 
an  old  dog  new  tricks,"  I  began  with  the  point 


A  Foreword 

of  least  resistance,  the  Young  People's  Societies. 
We  conducted  Evangelistic  Institutes  in  which 
the  representatives  of  these  societies  were  taught 
the  evangelistic  message  and  evangelistic  meth- 
ods, having  on  our  platform  some  of  the  most 
eminent  teachers  in  the  East.  Gradually  mem- 
bers of  men's  organizations  in  the  churches  and 
representatives  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  participated 
in  the  institutes.  As  a  result,  during  the  season 
of  1917  over  eleven  hundred  meetings  were  con- 
ducted by  these  volunteers,  and  the  Gospel  was 
preached  to  over  260,000  persons. 

Mr.  Charles  Gallaudet  Trumbull,  Editor  of 
The  Sunday  School  Times,  gave  seven  lectures 
on  The  Evangelistic  Message  at  the  Evangelistic 
Institute  in  1918.  Although  the  attendance  at 
this  institute  was  not  as  large  as  it  has  been  in 
other  years,  which  is  easily  accounted  for  by 
the  absence  of  so  many  of  the  young  men  who 
are  "with  the  colors,"  the  interest  was  deeper 
than  it  has  ever  been.  This  was  doubtless  due 
to  the  fact  that  Mr.  Trumbull,  avoiding  contro- 
versy, presented  the  Gospel  message  so  clearly 
that  the  man  in  the  street  could  understand  it. 

Interest  in  things  vital  is  increasing.  The  spirit 
of  lay  evangelism  is  spreading  throughout  the 
world.  Lay  workers  are  assuming  the  respon- 
sibility that  God  gave  in  the  great  commission, 
"Go  .  .  .  and  preach  the  gospel  ..." 
It  is  possible  that  more  aggressive  evangelistic 
work  is  being  done  for  the  soldiers  in  our  army 


On  Evangelism 

than  has  ever  been  done  in  the  history  of  any 
army  in  any  country  in  the  world.  Women  are 
eager  to  do  their  "bit."  In  many  instances  they 
are  filHng  the  gaps  in  church  work  as  well  as  in 
business  left  by  the  young  men  who  have  gone 
into  the  service.  They  have  even  gone  so  far 
as  to  take  charge  of  open-air  meetings  that  for- 
merly were  led  by  young  men.  Some  of  them 
are  giving  the  message  in  public. 

These  lectures  by  Mr.  Trumbull  make  the  mes- 
sage so  clear  that  it  is  easy  for  lay  workers  to 
grasp  it.  The  undersigned  earnestly  hopes  that 
the  lectures  will  have  a  large  circulation,  that 
they  may  be  used  as  a  basis  for  study  in  insti- 
tutes throughout  the  land.  Such  institutes  do 
not  always  need  a  living  teacher.  Frequently 
a  text-book  such  as  this  can  be  used  effectively. 
Those  who  desire  to  "be  fit  for  more  than  they 
are  filling  the  gaps  in  church  work  as  well  as  in 
as  a  basis  for  group  study,  electing  one  of  their 
own  number  as  leader.  Every  Young  People's 
Society  in  the  land  can  increase  its  efficiency  by 
mastering  The  Evangelistic  Message'  as  it  is 
given  here  in  "What  is  the  Gospel  ?" 

Arthur  J.  Smith. 


Why  Men  Are  Lost 
Sin  and  Its  Consequences 

SIN  is  not  a  pleasant  subject.  Neither  is 
leprosy. 
I  shall  not  soon  forget  one  day,  more 
than  a  dozen  years  ago,  when  a  little  party  of 
those  who  had  gone  from  America  to  attend  the 
World's  Sunday-school  Convention  at  Jerusalem 
were  passing  out  from  the  Holy  City  toward  the 
Mount  of  Olives.  I  was  at  a  little  distance  from 
my  wife,  when  I  saw  a  friend,  who  was  near  her, 
spring  forward  and  put  out  his  hand  in  front  of 
her.  A  leper  had  just  been  reaching  out  and 
trying  to  attract  her  attention  by  laying  hold  of 
her  arm.  A  heart-breaking  sight — those  lepers 
in  our  Lord's  land  were;  hands  and  feet  and 
even  faces  rotted  away  by  the  dread  disease  for 
which  there  is  no  human  cure. 

Suppose  you  went  to  an  institution  for  the 
insane,  or  to  a  hospital  for  the  incurable,  and, 
looking  upon  these  persons  hopelessly  in  the 
bondage  of  mental  or  bodily  disease,  you  asked, 
"Why  are  they  in  this  awful  condition?"  and  the 
answer  came  back,  "They  were  born  so." 


Why  Men  Are  Lost 

This  world  as  God  sees  it  is  a  vast  hospital, 
filled  with  human  beings  whose  minds  and  bodies 
are  diseased.    Why?    They  were  born  so. 

Why  are  men  lost?  They  were  born  so.  For 
"by  one  man  sin  entered  into  the  world,  and  death 
by  sin ;  and  so  death  passed  upon  all  men"  (Rom. 
5:12).  All  men  are  sinners  by  birth.  Sin  is 
what  they  have  inherited. 

See  how  God  describes  this  congenital  sinful 
nature  of  all  of  us.  "The  carnal  mind,"  the 
apostle  calls  it.  "For  to  be  carnally  minded  is 
death ;  .  .  .  because  the  carnal  mind  is  enmity 
against  God:  for  it  is  not  subject  to  the  law  of 
God,  neither  indeed  can  be"  (Rom.  8:  6,  7). 

Looking  back  at  our  first  human  parents, — was 
Adam  born  sinful  ?  No ;  he  was  created  without 
sin ;  temptation  was  brought  to  him  from  without, 
he  chose  sin,  down  he  went,  and  with  him  he 
dragged  down  the  whole  world, — with  one  stroke 
this  earth  and  all  mankind  went  into  the  bondage 
of  sin. 

Satan  was  the  being  who  proposed  to  our  first 
parents  that  they  should  sin.  Was  Satan  created 
sinful  ?  No ;  we  are  given  glimpses  in  God^s  Word 
of  the  beauty  and  wisdom  and  power  of  this  great 
spirit-being  before  he  sinned,  as  in  such  a  passage 
as  Ezekiel  28:12-15, — "Thou  wast  perfect  in  thy 
ways  from  the  day  that  thou  wast  created,  till 
iniquity  was  found  in  thee."  Then,  "How  art 
thou  fallen  from  heaven,  O  Lucifer,  son  of  the 
morning !  how  art  thou  cut  down  to  the  ground. 


10 


Sin  and  Its  Consequences 

which  didst  weaken  the  nations !  For  thou  hast 
said  in  thine  heart,  I  will  ascend  into  heaven,  I 
will  exalt  my  throne  above  the  stars  of  God :  .  .  . 
I  will  be  like  the  most  High.  Yet  thou  shalt  be 
brought  down  to  hell,  to  the  sides  of  the  pit" 
(Isa.  14:12-15). 

There  was  the  beginning  of  sin  in  all  the 
universe:  when  some  one  said,  "I  will,"  over 
against  God's  will.  Sin  is  the  opposite  of  God's 
will;  sin  is  any  variation  from  God's  will.  Sin 
wrecked  Satan;  sin  wrecked  the  universe;  sin 
wrecked  man;  sin  wrecked  the  created  and 
restored  earth.  And  if  we  want  to  see  the  awful 
onworking  and  outworking  of  sin  in  man,  we  find 
the  inspired  record  of  its  blackness  and  horrors 
in  such  a  passage  as  Romans  1 :  28-32 ;  and  in  the 
third  chapter  of  that  same  great  epistle,  verses 
9-18,  where  we  find  God  saying,  "There  is  none 
righteous,  no,  not  one,"  with  another  terrible 
description  of  what  sin  and  bondage  mean. 

Turning  from  Satan  and  Adam,  every  man 
knows  that  he  himself  has  sinned,  over  and  over 
again,  in  deliberate  rejection  and  repudiation  of 
God's  will.  "For  all  have  sinned,  and  come  short 
of  the  glory  of  God"  (Rom.  3:23). 

It  does  not  take  an  honest  man  very  long,  in  a 
study  of  his  own  life,  to  decide  whether  or  not 
he  has  sinned.  It  does  not  take  any  exhaustive 
study  of  the  world  about  us  to  decide  whether 
or  not  the  world  is  a  sinful  world.  And  it  does 
not   take   an   expert   historian   to    examine   the 

11 


Why  Men  Are  Lost 

records  of  history  in  order  to  come  to  a  conclu- 
sion as  to  whether  mankind's  history  has  been 
saturated  with  sin.  Even  profane  or  secular 
history  is  clear  as  to  this;  and  God's  history  of 
the  world,  in  the  Bible,  unerringly  shows  that, 
from  the  time  when  Adam  and  Eve  were  created 
sinless  until  this  present  moment,  all  history  has 
been  made  up  of  a  succession  of  ages  or  dispen- 
sations, each  one  going  down-hill  in  increasing 
sin  until  it  reached  such  a  depth  of  failure  that 
God  had  to  end  that  age,  in  judgment  for  its  sin, 
and  then  give  mankind  a  fresh  opportunity  by  a 
new  start.  But  with  each  new  age  the  down- 
grade soon  began  again,  till  the  age  was  ended  in 
man's  failure  and  God's  judgment,  this  process 
only  to  be  repeated  again  until  we  have  come  to 
the  present  day  in  the  present  age  of  grace,  which 
God  tells  us  will  end,  like  all  preceding  ages,  in 
failure. 

Yes,  the  sin-story  of  man  is  a  sad  one.  And 
the  tragedy  of  it  is  that  man  left  to  himself  would 
go  on  sinning  forever.  Sin  never  cures  itself. 
Sin  is  not  "a  stumble  upward."  Sin  is  sin,  and 
all  sin  is  black  sin, — so  black,  as  Billy  Sunday  has 
said,  that  it  would  "make  a  black  mark  on  a  piece 
of  anthracite."  Sin  is  death.  Sin  is  murder.  Sin 
is  suicide.  Sin  separates  men  from  God,  Sin 
destroys  the  spiritual  life  of  man.  "Jn  the  day 
that  thou  eatest  thereof  thou  shalt  surely  die," 
said  God  to  Adam,  warning  him  against  the  sin 
of  disobedience  (Gen.  2:17).    And  that  very  day 


12 


Sin  and  Its  Consequences 

Adam  died  spiritually,  even  as  his  body  was  to 
die  later  because  of  that  sin. 

Separated  from  God  by  sin,  man  not  only  loses 
the  life  of  his  spirit  and  of  his  body,  but  man 
cannot  do  right.  He  is  a  constant  injury  to 
others,  he  is  a  constant  injury  to  himself.  And 
the  ending  of  it  all  is  hell, — eternal  separation 
from  God  and  eternal  punishment. 

Many  people  have  objected  to  Billy  Sunday's 
preaching  of  hell.  They  forget  that  the  Christ 
whom  Billy  Sunday  offers  to  men  as  Saviour 
spoke  the  most  terrible  words  about  hell  that  can 
be  found  anywhere  in  the  Bible. 

Men  are  lost  because  of  sin  and  its  conse- 
quences, and  because  they  are  sinners.  God 
makes  this  pleadingly  plain  to  us.  God  wants  no 
man  to  be  lost;  he  would  "have  all  men  to  be 
saved,  and  come  unto  the  knowledge  of  the  truth" 
(I  Tim.  2 :4).  And  "God  so  loved  the  world,  that 
he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever 
believeth  on  him  should  not  perish,  but  have 
everlasting  life"  (John  3:16).  He  gave  his  best 
when  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son.  He 
exhausted  all  his  resources  when  he  let  Jesus 
be  crucified  on  the  cross  to  pay  the  penalty  of  our 
sins.  He  went  to  the  uttermost  in  the  death  of 
Christ ;  in  time  or  eternity  he  can  go  no  farther. 
And  so  those  who  do  not  believe  on  Jesus,  who 
do  not  accept  the  salvation  that  is  freely  theirs 
through  the  death  of  Christ  if  they  will  but  take 
it, — they  are  lost.    "It  is  Jesus  or  hell." 

13 


II 

How  Men  Are  Saved 
God's  Part  in  Salvation 

SUPPOSE  you  should  step  out  on  to  the 
street,  and  there,  standing  on  the  curb- 
stone, roll  up  your  sleeves,  take  a  knife, 
open  an  artery  in  your  arm,  and  let  the  blood 
gush  out  into  the  gutter;  what  would  be  the 
result?  The  answer  is  simple:  after  enough  of 
the  blood  had  left  your  body  you  would  drop 
over  unconscious;  and  a  very  short  time  after 
that  you  would  be  dead. 

That  is  exactly  what  has  happened,  spiritually, 
to  every  one  who  has  ever  done  anything  wrong 
in  his  life.  Rather,  it  was  done  for  him  before 
he  was  born,  when  the  father  of  the  human  race 
sinned  and  in  that  act  of  sin  let  the  spiritual  life 
of  himself  and  of  all  mankind  pour  out  until  he 
and  the  race  were  "dead  in  trespasses  and  sins" 
(Eph.  2:1). 

This  answers  our  question  of  the  previous 
chapter,  "Why  Men  Are  Lost."  The  man  from 
whose  physical  body  all  the  life-blood  has  poured 
out  is  a  lost  man,  so  far  as  his  physical  life  is 


15 


How  Men  Are  Saved 

concerned.  The  man  from  whose  spirit  the  God- 
life  is  gone  is  a  lost  man,  so  far  as  his  spiritual 
life  is  concerned.  Sin  separates  us  from  the  life 
of  God.  Did  you  ever  sin?  Then,  left  to  your- 
self, you  are  spiritually  dead,  a  lost  soul. 

And  how  are  you  going  to  be  saved  ? 

A  reader  of  The  Sunday  School  Times  recently 
asked  the  question,  "What  do  you  consider  the 
most  dangerous  heresy  today?" 

What  answer  would  you  have  made?  Chris- 
tian Science?  New  Thought?  Russellism,  or 
Millennial  Dawnism?  Spiritualism, — or  Spirit- 
ism? The  New  Theology?  The  Higher  Criti- 
cism? All  of  these  are  dangerous  enough! 
Bloodless  beliefs,  almost  all  of  them,  leaving  out 
the  cross  of  Christ  and  leading  men  away  from 
the  only  hope  and  way  of  life,  to  remain  dead 
and  hopeless  in  their  sins. 

No;  dangerous  and  deadly  though  all  these 
and  ot?ier  false  religions  of  today  are,  there  is 
another  heresy  that  may  safely  be  called  more 
dangerous  still,  because  it  is  abroad  in  the  church 
of  Christ  everywhere  and  among  professing 
♦  Christians  on  every  hand. 

The  most  dangerous  heresy  of  today  is  the 
emphasis  that  is  being  made,  within  the  church 
itself  and  by  Christian  leaders  and  teachers  and 
ministers,  upon  activity  as  Christianity;  upon 
service  as  salvation. 


16 


God's  Part  in  Salvation 

Get  busy  for  God,  we  are  told,  and  your  sal- 
vation will  take  care  of  itself.  Serve  your  fel- 
lowmen,  and  don't  worry  about  creeds.  Forget 
your  creeds  and  do  something  worth  while. 
Activity  as  the  way  of  life :  that  is  the  most 
dangerous  heresy  today.  For  men  are  not  saved 
by  doing  anything. 

Stop  a  minute,  and  look  at  that  man  whose 
arteries  were  opened,  and  whose  blood  has 
poured  out  from  his  body,  lying  there  dead  in  the 
gutter.  Would  it  be  a  hopeful  thing  to  step  up 
to  him  and  say,  "Just  get  up  and  do  something, 
and  you  will  be  all  right"  ? 

Is  a  dead  man  going  to  be  brought  to  life, 
saved,  by  doing  something? 

Or  would  the  "kindly"  counsel  that  his  hope 
of  "salvation,"  his  life,  lies  in  his  activity  for 
others,  be  only  irony  and  mockery  to  him? 

No ;  it  is  not  Good  News — and  the  Gospel  is 
Good  News — to  tell  a  dead  man  that  he  must  do 
something.  It  is  not  evangelism  to  offer  a  man 
advice  that  he  cannot  possibly  accept.  The  "get 
busy"  slogan  is  as  devilish  a  delusion,  when 
offered  as  the  way  of  salvation,  as  to  encourage 
a  hospital  ward  full  of  incurable  paralytics  to 
believe  that  a  little  while  spent  in  vigorous  "set- 
ting up"  exercises  will  make  them  sound  and 
healthy  human  beings. 

If  the  dead  man  is  going  to  live,  he  will  have 
to  be  brought  to  life.    And  the  only  one  who  can 

17 


How  Men  Are  Saved 

bring  the  dead  to  life  is  God.  God,  then,  has  got 
to  do  something  about  man's  salvation.  Man 
cannot  do  anything  for  his  own  salvation. 

And  God  has  done  it! 

That,  praise  God,  is  the  Gospel!  That  is  the 
Good  News. 

We  cannot  too  often  remind  ourselves  of  the 
truth  of  the  old  saying,  "Law  says  do;  grace  says 
done."  The  law  saves  no  one,  for  "There  is  none 
righteous,  no,  not  one"  (Rom.  3  :10)  ;  and  it  takes 
a  righteous  man  to  do  the  law  of  God.  But  grace, 
the  grace  of  God,  which  gives  to  man,  not  re- 
quires from  man,  does  for  man  that  which  man 
cannot  do  for  himself. 

God  does  not  mock  that  wretched,  sin-degraded, 
sin-destroyed  dead  man  lying  there  in  the  gutter 
with  no  life  in  his  veins.  God  would  be  mocking 
that  man  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins  if  He  told 
him  just  to  do  the  right  thing  and  all  would  be 
well.  No ;  God  says  lovingly,  and  in  a  voice  that 
even  the  dead  can  hear,  "I  have  done  it  all  for 
you ;  will  you  accept  this  ?" 

What  is  it  that  God  has  done? 

When,  through  Adam's  fall,  mankind  sinned 
and  the  whole  human  race  went  down  into  ruin, 
there  were  three  things  we  can  think  of  that  God 
might  do. 

He  might  ignore  man's  sin,  and,  himself  a  per- 
fect, sinless,  and  holy  God,  take  into  fellowship 

18 


God's  Part  in  Salvation 

with  himself  for  time  and  eternity  sinful,  sinning, 
sin-saturated  human  beings.  But  that  is  incon- 
ceivable.   A  holy,  sinless  God  cannot  ignore  sin. 

Well,  then,  God  might  let  all  men  for  time  and 
eternity  receive  the  full,  inevitable  consequences 
of  their  sin,  thereby  being  forever  separated  and 
cut  off  from  fellowship  with  Him.  Thus  all 
human  beings  would  go  to  hell,  forever  lost.  This 
also  is  unthinkable ;  God  did  not  create  the  human 
race  in  his  own  image  to  have  that  race,  in  its 
entirety,  forever  lost. 

There  is  only  one  other  possibility.  God  can- 
not ignore  sin ;  and  God  cannot  ignore  man.  Then 
God  himself  must  pay  the  penalty  of  man's  sin 
in  order  that  man  may  be  saved,  while  at  the 
same  time  sin  is  taken  fully  into  account  and 
dealt  with  as  the  black,  heinous  fact  that  it  is. 

God  cannot  condone  sin ;  he  must  condemn  it. 
The  wages  of  sin  is  death;  and  God  cannot  set 
aside  or  abrogate  those  wages  while  he  continues 
to  be  a  holy  and  righteous  God.  If  only  a  single 
member  of  the  human  race  is  to  be  saved  from 
paying  the  death  penalty  of  sin,  God  must  pay 
that  penalty  himself.  And  that  is  the  necessity 
for  the  death  of  Christ.  His  death  indeed  showed 
forth  the  supreme  love  of  God  for  men.  But  we 
see  that  it  did  infinitely  more. 

In  our  human  way  we  may,  as  it  were,  think 
of  the  members  of  the  Godhead,  far  back  in  the 
infinite  reaches  of  eternity,  before  ever  creation 


19 


How  Men  Are  Saved 

had  begun,  holding  a  loving  council  together  over 
the  question  of  how  man's  coming  sin  should  be 
dealt  with  while  man  himself  should  be  saved. 
And  we  can,  as  it  were,  see  the  only  and  eternal 
Son  of  God,  loving  that  Father  as  no  human 
child  ever  loved  a  parent,  and  loved  by  that 
Father  as  no  human  parent  ever  loved  a  child, 
agreeing  with  the  Father  to  take  the  place  of 
sinning,  sinful  man  in  order  that  God's  holy  and 
necessary  wrath  against  sin  might  be  visited  to 
the  needed  uttermost  upon — not  sinful  man,  but 
the  sinless  Son  of  man  standing  in  sinful  man's 
place.  Such  a  plan,  agreed  upon  by  the  Godhead 
in  the  councils  of  eternity,  meant  such  a  heart- 
break of  sorrow  in  the  Godhead  as  no  man  can 
conceive.  No  human  father  or  mother,  giving 
their  only  son  in  this  black  hour  of  world  war  as 
their  sacrifice  to  their  nation,  knows  the  meaning 
of  heart-break  as  God  the  Father  knew  it  when 
he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son.  No  human  son, 
loving  his  human  father  in  the  most  perfect  love 
known  to  the  heart  of  man,  and  knowing  that  he 
is  to  be  separated  from  that  father  for  all  of  life- 
time, knows  anything  of  the  heart-break  of  the 
Son  as  he,  for  our  sakes  and  in  our  stead,  was 
separated  from  the  loving  heart  of  his  heavenly 
Father. 

The  plan  agreed  upon  by  the  Father  and  the 
Son  and  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  councils  of  eter- 
nity was,  in  the  fulness  of  time,  consummated. 
God  the  Son,  "being  in  the  form  of  God,  thought 


20 


God's  Part  in  Salvation 

it  not  robbery  to  be  equal  with  God :  but  made 
himself  of  no  reputation,  and  took  upon  him  the 
form  of  a  servant,  and  was  made  in  the  likeness 
of  men :  and  being  found  in  fashion  as  a  man,  he 
humbled  himself,  and  became  obedient  unto 
death,  even  the  death  of  the  cross"  (Phil.  2 :  6-8). 

And  not  only  did  God  thus  become  man,  con- 
tinuing to  be  God  while  also  he  was  man ;  but  he, 
sinless,  actually  became  sin  for  our  sakes.  "For 
he  hath  made  him  to  be  sin  for  us,  who  knew  no 
sin"  (II  Cor.  5:21).  Thus  becoming  actually 
our  sin,  in  a  way  that  we  cannot  understand  but 
that  we  can  and  must  literally  accept  unless  we 
are  to  make  God  a  liar  (I  John  5  :10),  the  sinless 
Christ,  because  he  had  become  sin,  became  act- 
ually a  curse  in  the  sight  of  God.  For  sin  is  a 
loathsome,  accursed  thing  in  God's  sight;  and  it 
always  must  be  so  while  God  is  God.  Jesus 
Christ,  "the  Lamb  of  God,  which  taketh  away 
the  sin  of  the  world"  (John  1 :  29)  was  nailed  to 
the  cross  and  actually  hung  there,  in  his  volun- 
tarily accepted  human  body  of  humiliation,  de- 
spised by  men  and  accursed  in  the  sight  of  the 
Father.  He  had  really  been  "made  a  curse  for 
us;  for  it  is  written.  Cursed  is  every  one  that 
hangeth  on  a  tree"  (Gal.  3:13).  God  could  not 
look  in  loving  fellowship  upon  this  supreme  gath- 
ering together  there,  in  that  broken,  bleeding 
human  body,  of  the  sin  of  all  mankind.  God,  be- 
cause he  is  sinless  and  holy  and  eternally  hating 
the  sin  that  destroys  men  and  would  if  it  could 


21 


Hozv  Men  Are  Saved 

destroy  God,  must  turn  away  his  face  from  the 
Lamb  hanging  there  "who  his  own  self  bare  our 
sins  in  his  own  body  on  the  tree"  (I  Peter 
2 :  24)  ;  and,  for  the  first  time  in  eternity,  the 
Father  turned  away  his  face  from  his  only  Son. 

It  had  to  be  so.  Sin  separates  from  God.  The 
Son  of  God,  having  become  the  sin  of  the  world, 
was  separated  from  the  Father.  The  black 
horror  of  that  tragedy  staggers  our  minds;  we 
cannot  conceive  it.  And  then  came  the  heart- 
broken, agonizing  cry  of  time  and  eternity :  "My 
God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me?'^ 

We  know  the  answer — God*s  answer.  He  had 
turned  away  from  his  only  begotten  Son,  made 
to  be  sin  on  our  behalf,  that  he  might  visit  upon 
him  the  wrath  that  must  otherwise  fall  upon  us. 
In  order  that  zve  might  be  spared,  God  "spared 
not  his  own  Son,  but  delivered  him  up  for  us  all" 
(Rom.  8:32). 

And  so  the  blow  fell.  God  had  struck ;  struck 
at  the  most  hateful  thing  in  the  universe,  sin; 
struck  at  the  sin  of  all  mankind,  as  God  must  do 
because  he  is  holy  and  loving.  But  that  sin  of  all 
mankind  was  there  in  the  body  and  person  of  his 
only  Son! 

Nineteen  centuries  before  this  blackest  day  in 
history  another  loving  father  and  another  loving 
son  were  together  at  the  place  of  sacrifice.  God 
was  showing  men,  nineteen  hundred  years  before 
it  occurred,  the  meaning  of  Calvary.    Acting  in 


22 


God's  Part  in  Salvation 

heart-broken  obedience  to  the  will  of  God,  "Abra- 
ham stretched  forth  his  hand,  and  took  the  knife 
to  slay  his  son."  Yet  in  that  awful  moment,  when 
his  son's  life  trembled  in  the  balance,  "the  angel 
of  the  Lord  called  unto  him  out  of  heaven,  and 
said,  Abraham,  Abraham."  Then  came  the  loving 
command  from  God,  "Lay  not  thine  hand  upon 
the  lad,  neither  do  thou  any  thing  unto  him :  for 
now  I  know  that  thou  fearest  God,  seeing  thou 
hast  not  withheld  thy  son,  thine  only  son  from 
me."  And  Abraham  took  the  little  animal  that 
was  there  at  hand,  provided  by  God,  "and  offered 
him  up  for  a  burnt  offering  in  the  stead  of  his 
son." 

But  this  day  on  Calvary,  as  God's  hand  was 
raised  to  strike  the  body  of  his  Son,  his  only  Son, 
there  was  no  one  to  stay  his  hand.  And  so  the 
blow  fell ;  and  Jesus  died.  The  necessary,  right- 
eous, loving  wrath  of  God  against  the  sin  that 
would  destroy  God's  children  was  visited  in  full 
upon  that  only  Son  who  hung  there  in  the  sinner's 
place. 

It  has  been  said,  and  truly,  that  God  never 
strikes  twice  for  the  same  sin.  The  penalty  of 
the  sin  of  all  mankind  had  been  paid.  "As  by  the 
offence  of  one  judgment  came  upon  all  men  to 
condemnation;  even  so  by  the  righteousness  of 
one  the  free  gift  came  upon  all  men  unto  justi- 
fication of  Hfe"  (Rom.  5:18).  All  men  for  all 
time  were  free  from  the  condemnation  of  sin. 


23 


How  Men  Are  Saved 

Free,  that  is,  if  they  would  accept  God's  unspeak- 
able gift.  The  freedom  was  there  for  the  taking, 
for  the  believing;  but  it  was  never  to  be  forced 
upon  them.  Since  the  Lamb  of  God  took  away 
the  sin  of  the  world  men  go  to  hell,  not  because 
they  are  sinners,  but  because  they  will  not  accept 
God's  freely  offered  pardon  of  their  sin,  pur- 
chased for  them  by  the  only  begotten  Son  of  God 
at  such  terrible  cost  to  the  Father  and  the  Son. 

This,  then,  is  the  meaning  of  the  death  of 
Christ.  This  is  why  the  supreme  mission  of 
Christ  was,  not  his  LIFE  here  on  earth,  hut 
his  DEATH  here  on  earth.  Not  because  he  lived, 
hut  he  cause  he  died,  we  may  live — if  we  accept 
the  result  of  his  death.  Believers  are  "reconciled 
to  God  by  the  death  of  his  Son''  (Rom.  5:10). 
This  is  why  all  eternity  looked  forzvard,  and  all 
eternity  will  continue  to  look  backward,  to  the 
death  of  Jesus  Christ  as  the  supremest  redemp- 
tive moment  in  the  history  of  God  and  man. 

That  is  what  God  has  done  for  us  dead  men. 
He  let  his  only  begotten  Son  die  as  our  Substi- 
tute, die  in  our  place  and  for  our  sins,  receiving 
in  himself  the  full  penalty  that  we  deserve  to 
receive  because  of  our  sins.  And  then,  having 
been  delivered  "for  our  offences,"  that  Son  "was 
raised  again  for  our  justification"  (Rom.  4:25). 

Do  you  believe  it?  God  is  telling  us  this  won- 
derful Good  News,  telling  it  in  tones  that  can 
awaken  even  the  hearing  of  the  dead :  that  he  has 


24 


God's  Part  in  Salvation 

done  it  all,  and  if  we  will  but  believe,  he,  by  the 
finished  work  of  that  crucified,  raised,  and 
ascended  Son,  will  raise  us  from  the  dead,  give 
us  new  life  in  his  Son  Christ  Jesus,  and  we  shall 
be  saved. 

May  the  Holy  Spirit  make  new  to  us  all,  with 
the  unsearchable  riches  of  the  love  of  God,  the 
meaning  of  the  marvelous  Good  News,  that  "God 
so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten 
Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  him  should  not 
perish,  but  have  everlasting  life." 

Will  you  accept  the  Father's  unspeakable  gift 
of  his  Son  as  your  Substitute  and  your  Saviour? 
Do  you  so  accept  him?  If  you  do,  tell  him  so 
now. 


The  substancfr  of  this  chapter,  from  pages  18  to  25,  njay 
be  had  as  a  separate  pamphlet,  entitled,  "Was  Jesus'  Life  or 
Death  the  More  Important?"  It  is  published  by  The  Sunday- 
School  Times  Company,  Philadelphia,  at  20  cents  a  dozen  copies; 
fifty  or  more,  one  cent  each;  single  copies,  2  cents  each,  postpaid. 


25 


Ill 

How  Men  Are  Saved 
Man's  Part  in  Salvation 

A  FRIEND  of  mine,  who  is  a  young  busi- 
ness man,  recently  asked  twenty-five  dif- 
ferent Sunday-school  teachers  in  Phila- 
delphia if  they  knew  whether  they  were  saved. 
Twenty-three  of  the  twenty-five  did  not  know. 
And  they  are — or  they  are  supposed  to  be — teach- 
ing others  the  way  of  salvation ! 

Suppose  you  were  walking  along  the  street  and 
a  stranger  stepped  up  to  you  and  asked  if  you 
could  tell  him  how  to  get  to  a  certain  place.  Sup- 
pose your  reply  was,  "Come  with  me."  And  then, 
when  the  stranger  asked,  "Are  you  going  there 
yourself?"  suppose  you  replied,  "I  don't  know." 
What  would  the  stranger  think  of  you  as  a 
dependable  guide? 

Perhaps  those  twenty-three  "agnostic"  Sunday- 
school  teachers  ("agnostic,"  you  remember, 
means  "I  don't  know")  are  not  sure  whether  they 
have  done  their  part  in  being  saved. 

What  is  man's  part  in  salvation?  We  saw  in 
the  preceding  chapter  what  is  God*s  part. 

27 


How  Men  Are  Saved 

Do  you  remember  the  story  of  the  man  who 
was  lost  in  a  snowstorm  in  the  mountains?  He 
pushed  on  his  way,  hoping  against  hope ;  finally 
his  strength  began  to  fail,  and  the  darkness  came 
on,  and  before  long  he  realized  that  he  could  not 
go  much  farther.  When  he  was  about  to  drop 
down  in  exhaustion,  knowing  full  well  that  if  he 
did  so  he  would  never  get  up  again,  he  stumbled 
against  something,  and  leaning  over  and  brushing 
away  the  snow  he  found  that  it  was  another  man, 
lying  there  unconscious.  Eagerly  he  sought  to 
bring  this  man  back  to  consciousness ;  and  he 
succeeded.  Then  he  got  him  to  sit  up,  then  to 
kneel,  then  on  to  his  feet,  then  to  walk  a  few 
steps ;  and  now  he  urged  the  man  to  keep  moving 
as  he  valued  his  life.  Together  they  forced  their 
way  through  the  blinding  snowstorm ;  finally 
they  saw  a  light  ahead,  staggered  into  the  house 
from  which  it  came,  and  both  were  saved. 

The  point  of  that  story  is :  if  you  want  salva- 
tion, go  out  and  do  something  for  somebody  else. 
You  will  save  yourself  by  forgetting  yourself  and 
saving  others. 

Don't  ever  tell  that  story,  in  an  evangelistic 
message,  as  an  illustration  of  the  Gospel.  If  you 
do,  you  will  be  lying.  We  could  not  have  a  better 
illustration  of  what  the  Gospel  is  not.  No  soul, 
since  Adam  sinned,  has  ever  saved  himself  that 
way — by  saving  another. 


28 


Man's  Part  in  Salvation 

Let  us  set  it  down,  then,  that  service  is  not  sal- 
vation. Man's  part  in  salvation  is  not  to  serve 
others. 

Trying  to  serve  others  spiritually,  without  a 
Saviour,  and  finding  that  we  cannot  be  of  any 
spiritual  service  to  them,  may  indeed  force  us 
into  the  realization  that  we  and  they  need  a 
Saviour.  One  of  the  greatest  Christian  leaders 
of  our  generation  says  that  he  came  to  believe  in 
the  deity  of  Christ  in  just  that  way ;  he  was  doing 
work  among  men  in  prison,  and  he  found  that 
those  men  needed  supernatural  help,  help  that  he 
could  not  possibly  give  them,  and  so  he  was 
driven  to  accept  the  deity  of  Christ. 

Turning  over  a  new  leaf  is  not  man's  part  in 
salvation.  That  is,  a  man  does  not  get  saved  by 
reforming,  by  saying  "I  will  clean  up  my  life,  and 
take  a  new  start."  For  man  gets  saved  only  by 
a  Saviour ;  and  if  he  could  clean  up  his  life  him- 
self he  would  need  no  Saviour. 

Some  years  ago,  when  a  certain  group  of 
Unitarian  churches  in  Boston  were  doing  special 
work  together,  they  asked  a  Methodist  Episcopal 
church  to  be  responsible  for  the  people  in  a  sec- 
tion of  the  city  which  included  some  of  the  lowest 
slums.  They  decided  that  the  Methodists  had 
better  take  charge  of  the  rescue  work  there ;  for 
somehow,  said  the  Unitarians,  the  Methodists 
seemed  to  reach  those  who  were  lowest  down 


29 


How  Men  Are  Saved 

more  effectively;  they  could  bring  these  "down 
and  outs"  up  to  a  certain  point,  and  then  the 
Unitarians  could  take  hold  and  help. 

Exactly!  The  evangelical  believers,  counting 
upon  Christ  as  Saviour,  could  reach  those  whom 
"liberal"  workers,  appealing  only  to  men  to  clean 
up  and  reform  themselves,  could  never  reach. 
What  an  unconscious  tribute  of  the  hopeless 
"Gospel"  of  "salvation  by  character"  to  the  true 
Gospel  of  character  by  salvation ! 

Asserting  one's  manhood  is  not  man's  part  in 
salvation.  If  a  man  would  be  saved,  the  first 
thing  he  is  to  do  is  not  to  "be  a  man."  Yet  we 
often  hear  the  appeal  for  Christ  made  in  that 
mistaken  way. 

An  evangelist  who  preaches  the  true  Gospel, 
who  is  true  to  the  shed  blood  of  Jesus,  and  whose 
work  God  has  abundantly  honored  in  using  him 
to  bring  thousands  to  salvation  through  personal 
faith  in  Christ  as  Saviour,  nevertheless  often  puts 
a  regrettable  emphasis  upon  the  mistaken  appeal 
to  the  unsaved.  "Be  a  man,  not  a  mutt  or  a  molly- 
coddle!" "Hit  the  trail  and  show  your  man- 
hood !"  is  the  cry.  "Hold  up  your  head,  throw 
back  your  shoulders,  look  the  world  straight  in 
the  eye,  and  make  your  decision  for  Christ." 

These  and  other  such  appeals  are  constantly 
heard,  even  in  true  evangelistic  work ;  the  empha- 
sis being  upon  the  idea  that  man's  part  in  salva- 
tion is  to  do  the  strong  thing  instead  of  the  weak 

30 


Man's  Part  in  Salvation 

thing;  do  right  and  stop  doing  wrong;  prove  his 
manhood  by  enlisting  on  the  side  of  righteous- 
ness ;  and  so  on.  But  that  is  not  the  Gospel.  That 
is  not  the  way  of  salvation.  That  is  not  man's 
part  in  salvation. 

Thinking  back  for  a  moment  to  that  man  who 
was  discussed  in  the  preceding  chapter,  whose 
arteries  were  opened,  whose  life-blood  had 
poured  out,  and  who  was  lying  dead  in  the  gutter, 
— is  his  part  in  salvation  to  assert  his  manhood? 
To  lift  up  his  head,  throw  back  his  shoulders,  step 
forward  and  enlist  in  the  cause  of  righteousness? 
No:  dead  men  cannot  do  that. 

The  cross  of  Christ  does  not  call  upon  men  to 
assert  their  manhood.  The  cross  of  Christ  ex- 
poses men's  degradation.  That  is  part  of  "the 
offence  of  the  cross"  (Gal.  5:11);  it  does  not 
appeal  to  the  natural  man's  pride ;  it  unsparingly 
shows  him  that  he  cannot  do  anything  for  him- 
self ;  that  he  has  no  manhood,  no  righteousness, 
no  decency  to  offer  God. 

Right  thinking  is  not  man's  part  in  salvation. 
New  Thought  would  tell  us  that  it  is.  Concen- 
trate your  mind  on  all  that  is  clean,  and  true,  and 
pure,  and  good,  and  holy,  says  New  Thought,  and 
you  will  be  saved, — rather,  you  will  save  yourself, 
for  "the  divine  spark"  is  within  you,  and  needs 
only  to  be  cultivated.  Keep  a  picture  of  your 
mother,  or  your  wife,  or  your  sister  or  sweet- 
heart, in  your  watch,  and  look  at  it  frequently. 


31 


How  Men  Are  Saved 

Think  high  thoughts.  This  "right  thinking"  plan 
of  salvation  even  quotes  Scripture  to  a  man,  and 
says,  "Whatsoever  things  are  true,  whatsoever 
things  are  honest,  .  .  .  whatsoever  things  are 
of  good  report  .  .  .  think  on  these  things," 
and  your  salvation  will  take  care  of  itself.  Those 
who  would  pervert  and  misuse  God's  Word  in 
this  way  fail  to  mention  the  fact  that  that  passage 
of  Scripture  is  addressed,  not  to  those  who  would 
be  saved,  but  to  those  who,  through  faith  in  Jesus 
Christ  as  Saviour  and  in  his  shed  blood  and 
finished  work  on  Calvary,  already  have  been 
saved.  The  verse  begins  with  the  words,  "Finally, 
brethren" ;  and  "brethren"  means  believers.  Men 
cannot  be  saved  by  thinking  right. 

Man's  part  in  salvation  is  not  to  deny  the  exist- 
ence of  sin.  Another  false  religion  tells  him  to 
do  so.  Deny  sin,  says  Christian  Science,  and  it 
will  not  bother  you.  Suppose  the  Allied  Armies 
simply  denied  the  existence  of  the  German  armies 
for  a  while,  and  took  up  their  daily  life  as  though 
Germans  and  German  armies  did  not  exist.  How 
soon  would  victory  come  to  the  Allies! 

No,  salvation  does  not  come  by  any  such 
suicidal  insanity  as  the  denial  of  the  existence  of 
sin.  God  does  not  deny  the  existence  of  sin;  he 
declares  it  in  words  of  righteous  wrath  and  in- 
dignation, and  in  expression  of  his  eternal  enmity 
against  this  terrible  reality.  Sin.  The  cross  of 
Christ  the  Son  of  God  is  God's  recognition  of 


32 


Man's  Part  in  Salvation 

sin.  "The  Lord  hath  laid  on  him  the  iniquity 
of  us  all"  (Isa.  53:6).  "But  the  scripture  hath 
concluded  all  under  sin"  (Gal.  3:22).  One  of 
the  first  steps  for  man  to  take,  for  his  salvation, 
is  not  to  deny  but  to  recognize  his  sin. 

To  deny  self  is  not  man's  part  in  salvation. 
Many  an  ascetic  has  thought  that  it  is.  In  heathen 
lands  and  in  Christian  lands  we  see  men  vainly 
trying  to  save  themselves  by  attempting  to 
crucify  self,  put  self  to  death.  Is  a  thing  desirable 
to  them  naturally? — ^they  give  it  up.  Is  a  thing 
hard  to  do? — they  do  it.  But  no  one  ever  has 
been,  and  no  one  ever  will  be,  saved  that  way. 
After  we  have  been  saved,  it  is,  indeed,  a  duty 
and  a  privilege  to  deny  self, — the  self  that  was 
crucified  with  Christ  on  the  cross.  But  this 
denial  of  self  is  not  a  condition  of  salvation,  it  is 
a  result  of  salvation.  And  even  the  Christian's 
denial  of  self  is  possible  only  by  faith  in  Christ 
for  this:  letting  Christ  put  to  death  that  self 
which  we  can  never  put  to  death  for  ourselves. 

Finally,  even  sacrifice  is  not  man's  part  in  sal- 
vation. The  utter  sacrifice  of  himself  will  save 
no  man.  Let  us  keep  clear  on  this,  in  these  days 
of  sacrificial  living  and  sacrificial  giving  and 
sacrificial  dying  because  of  the  world  war.  The 
sacrifices  that  are  being  so  lavishly,  unreservedly 
made  now,  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  to  win 
this  war  against  the  forces  of  unrighteousness  are 
blessed  to  see,  and  we  may  well  thank  God  for 


33 


How  Men  Are  Saved 

them.  Both  the  world  and  the  church  are  being 
taught  lessons  in  sacrifice  to  an  extent  never  seen 
before.  But  may  God  defend  hs  from  the  subtle 
and  devilish  plausibility  of  the  lie,  which  has  been 
preached  even  in  some  so-called  Christian  pulpits, 
that  the  soldier  who  lays  down  his  life  on  the 
battlefield  in  the  cause  of  the  Allies  is,  by  that 
sacrificial  act,  assured  of  going  straight  to  heaven. 

Some  few  soldiers  may  believe  this;  some  are 
writing  magazine  articles  in  which  the  untruth  is 
declared  that  the  discipline  and  sacrifice  of  soldier 
life  in  this  awful  struggle  cleanses  a  man  from 
all  sin  and  atones  for  any  past  wrong  in  his  life, 
squaring  him  with  God,  so  that  he  can  face  God 
fearlessly.  But  there  are  plenty  of  soldiers  who 
are  not  deceived  by  this.  They  are  keen  enough 
to  see  and  to  say,  as  some  one  has  pointed  out, 
that  this  battlefield-death-salvation  theory  would 
give  more  efficacy  to  a  German  bullet  than  to  the 
blood  of  Christ. 

No,  sacrifice  is  not  the  way  of  salvation,  though 
it  may  be  a  blessed  result  of  salvation.  But,  says 
some  one,  did  not  our  Lord  Jesus  himself  say, 
"Greater  love  hath  no  man  than  this,  that  a  man 
lay  down  his  Hfe  for  his  friends"  (John  15:13)  ? 
Yes,  our  Lord  said  that.  But  he  nowhere  said 
that  the  man  who  lays  down  his  life  for  his 
friends  wins  his  salvation  in  that  way.  Sacrifice 
is  one  thing ;  salvation  is  another ;  and  the  Word 
of  God  never  confuses  them,  though  men  often 


34 


Man's  Part  in  Salvation 

do.  There  is  a  specious  appeal  in  that  favorite 
bit  of  characteristic  American  verse,  "Ji^ 
Bludso,"  the  godless,  blasphemous,  adulterous 
engineer  of  a  Mississippi  steamboat  who,  one 
night  when  his  steamer  took  fire,  held  her  bow 
against  the  river  bank  until  every  last  soul  was 
safe  ashore,  while  Jim  himself  gave  up  his  life 
on  the  burning  boat;  and  the  moral  of  it  all  is 
this,  that 

"He  seen  his  duty,  a  dead  sure  thing, — 
And  went  for  it  thar  and  then; 
And  Christ  ain't  agoing  to  be  too  hard 
On  a  man  that  died  for  men." 

It  is  very  appealing  to  the  natural  pride  of  the 
unsaved  man,  but  even  Jim  Bludso's  death  is  not 
sufficient  to  set  aside  God's  Word  and  make  God 
a  liar, 

A  Christian  woman  said  the  other  day  to  a 
friend  that  she  had  a  pet  conviction  of  her  own, 
though  she  said  she  knew  it  was  not  Scriptural : 
ic  was  that  a  good  many  lovely,  unselfish  people 
whom  she  knew,  but  who  have  no  use  for  relig- 
ion, were  going  to  get  into  heaven  in  some  way, 
so  there  must  be  some  "side-door"  for  them. 
There  have  been  times  when  all  of  us  would  like 
to  have  been  able  to  believe  that,  for  the  sake  of 
some  one  we  have  known.  But  God  knows  that 
it  is  not  possible ;  and  he  has  made  this  very  plain. 
There  is  no  side-door  to  heaven.  There  is  only 
one  door,  and  that  is  Christ.    "I  am  the  door," 


35 


How  Men  Are  Saved 

said  he;  "by  me  if  any  man  enter  in,  he  shall  be 
saved."  And  he  had  just  said,  "Verily,  verily,  I 
say  unto  you.  He  that  entereth  not  by  the  door 
into  the  sheep  fold,  but  climbeth  up  some  other 
way,  the  same  is  a  thief  and  a  robber," — and 
heaven  is  a  place  "where  thieves  do  not  break 
through"  (Matt.  6:20;  John  10:1-9).  There  is 
only  one  way  into  heaven :  "Jesus  saith  unto  him, 
I  am  the  way,  ...  no  man  cometh  unto  the 
Father,  but  by  me"  (John  14:6).  "Neither  is 
there  salvation  in  any  other:  for  there  is  none 
other  name  under  heaven  given  among  men, 
whereby  we  must  be  saved"  (Acts  4:12). 

Why  is  it  that  none  of  those  seven  ways,  nor 
all  of  them  together,  will  save  a  man:  service, 
reformation,  being  a  man,  right  thinking,  denying 
the  existence  of  sin,  denying  self,  and  sacrifice? 

Well,  one  reason  is  that  no  one  could  ever  do 
any  of  these  things  perfectly.  And  to  be  com- 
pletely or  perfectly  saved  requires  that  the  work 
of  salvation  be  done  perfectly.  You  remember 
the  story  of  the  farmer  who  prided  himself  on 
his  morality,  and  who,  when  pleaded  with  to 
accept  Christ  as  Saviour,  always  replied  that  he 
was  doing  pretty  well  as  he  was.  One  day  he 
employed  a  man  to  build  a  fence  around  his 
farm,  and  went  out  to  see  how  the  work  was 
getting  on. 

"Is  the  fence  good  and  strong?"  the  farmer 
asked. 


36 


Man's  Part  in  Salvation 

"It's  a  good  average  fence,"  answered  the  man ; 
"there  are  one  or  two  gaps,  but  I  will  have  made 
up  for  those  by  doubling  the  rails  on  each  side 
of  the  gaps." 

"What !"  exclaimed  the  farmer,  "do  you  mean 
to  tell  me  that  you  have  built  a  fence  with  gaps 
in  it?  Don't  you  know  that  if  a  fence  is  not 
perfect  it  is  worthless?" 

"I  used  to  think  so,"  said  the  man ;  "but  I  hear 
you  talking  so  much  about  averaging  matters  with 
the  Lord  that  it  seemed  to  me  we  might  try  it 
with  the  cattle." 

A  "good  average"  will  not  fool  either  the  Lord 
or  cattle. 

"For  whosoever  shall  keep  the  whole  law,  and 
yet  offend  in  one  point,  he  is  guilty  of  all"  (James 
2:10). 

But  there  is  One  who  has  kept  the  whole  law, 
not  offending  in  one  point.  He,  and  he  only,  can 
accomplish  salvation  for  sinful  men. 

Salvation  is  something  that  must  be  won  for 
us ;  it  never  can  be  won  by  us.  That  is  what  we 
mean  when  we  say  that  salvation  is  by  grace,  not 
by  works;  by  the  grace  of  God  for  men,  not  by 
the  works  of  men  for  God. 

Salvation  is  a  substitutionary  thing.  It  is  won 
for  sinful  men  by  Another  becoming  their  Sub- 
stitute.    In  the  substitionary  death  of  Christ  on 


37 


How  Men  Are  Saved 

the  cross  he  died  for  the  sins  of  the  world.  We 
saw  in  the  last  chapter  how  this  was  so,  and  why 
it  was  necessary.  The  death  penalty  of  man's 
sin  has  been  paid,  forever  and  completely. 

What,  then,  is  man's  part  in  salvation?  It  is 
just  to  believe  that  the  thing  has  been  done. 
When  Jesus  Christ  died  for  men's  sins,  was 
raised  from  the  dead,  ascended  into  heaven  and 
sent  his  Holy  Spirit  to  this  earth,  the  way  was 
open  for  God  to  save  every  sinner  who — what? 
Who  would  serve  Him  perfectly?  Who  would 
assert  his  manhood?  Who  would  live  a  sacri- 
ficial life?  No;  the  way  was  open  for  God  to 
save  every  sinner  who  believes  that  God  has  done 
it  all!  For  "God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave 
his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth 
in  him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting 
life"  (John  3:16).  It  is  man's  part  simply  to 
decide  whether  God  is  speaking  the  truth  or  is 
lying.  For  the  man  who  deliberately  decides  that 
God  is  a  liar,  God  can  do  nothing  more. 

Man's  part  in  salvation  is  to  do  nothing,  but  let 
God  do  it  all.  There  is  just  one  passage  in  the 
whole  Bible  that  says  that  man  can  in  any  way 
work  for  his  salvation.  Jesus  spoke  the  words. 
He  had  been  talking  to  the  Jews  about  laboring 
"not  for  the  meat  which  perisheth,  but  for  that 
meat  which  endureth  unto  everlasting  life,  which 
the  Son  of  man  shall  give  unto  you."  They  asked 
him  how  they  could  "work  the  works  of  God." 


38 


Man's  Part  in  Salvation 

Listen  to  our  Lord's  reply :  "This  is  the  work  of 
God,  that  ye  believe  on  him  whom  he  hath  sent'* 
(John  6:27-29). 

In  other  words,  the  only  saving  work  that  man 
can  do  is — believe. 

The  Bible  never  contradicts  itself;  so  we  find 
the  Holy  Spirit  saying  through  Paul,  "To  him 
that  worketh  not,  but  believeth  on  him  that  justi- 
fieth  the  ungodly,  his  faith  is  counted  for  right- 
eousness" (Rom.  4:5). 

And  again,  "Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
and  thou  shalt  be  saved"  (Acts  16:31). 

What  is  belief  ?  do  you  ask?  What  is  the  faith 
that  is  necessary  to  salvation  ? 

It  is  the  simplest  thing  in  the  world.  "Faith 
does  nothing;  faith  lets  God  do  it  all."  Faith 
just  faces  the  facts,  and  recognizes  that  they  are 
facts,  and  accepts  them  for  oneself.  And  could 
we  have  any  better  evidence  that  certain  alleged 
facts  are  facts  than  to  hear  God  saying  that  they 
are  facts  ?  This  is  what  makes  the  Bible  so  sub- 
stantial and  comforting.  It  is  God  settling  the 
facts  for  us,  that  we  may  believe  and  be  saved. 

How  are  we  going  to  have  faith,  the  faith  we 
need  for  salvation?  Just  look  into  the  Word  of 
God  and  see  what  he  says  about  the  way  of 
salvation.  "So  then  faith  cometh  by  hearing,  and 
hearing  by  the  word  of  God"   (Rom.   10:17). 


39 


How  Men  Are  Saved 

Faith  feeds  on  facts ;  and  the  blessedest  facts  in 
the  universe  are  the  facts  of  what  Christ  has  done. 

If  you  want  a  great  faith,  face  great  facts. 
The  greatest  Fact  of  all  is  Christ.  "And  I,"  he 
said,  "if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will  draw 
all  men  unto  me"  (John  12 :  32).  "And  as  Moses 
lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the  wilderness,  even  so 
must  the  Son  of  man  be  lifted  up:  That  who- 
soever believeth  in  him  should  not  perish,  but 
have  eternal  Hfe"  (John  3:14,  15). 

Let  us  give  men  the  facts,  and  trust  God  to  do 
the  rest. 


40 


IV 

What  Is  Salvation  ? 
Past,  Present,  and  Future 

MAY  God  keep  us  from  ever  saying,  with 
a  look  of  pious  humility,  "I  trust  that  I 
am  saved!"  Of  those  twenty- three  out 
of  twenty-five  Sunday-school  teachers,  mentioned 
in  the  last  chapter,  who  did  not  know  whether  or 
not  they  were  saved,  doubtless  some  hoped  that 
they  were.  But  the  believer  in  Jesus  Christ  has 
no  business  to  hope  that  he  is  saved.  Hope  looks 
toward  the  future,  and  it  has  a  very  blessed  place 
in  our  salvation,  as  we  shall  see  later.  But  our 
salvation  is  also  of  the  present,  and  of  the  past; 
and  it  is  the  Christian's  duty  and  privilege  to 
know  that  he  is  saved.  The  Christian  who  only 
hopes  that  he  is  saved  is  hoping  that  God  is  not  a 
liar, — whether  he  says  it  in  this  shockingly  frank 
way  or  not.  The  Christian  who  knows  that  God's 
Word  is  true  has  the  privilege  and  the  duty  of 
knowing  that  he  is  saved.  Jesus  said,  on  the 
cross,  "It  is  finished"  (John  19:30).  God  says 
that  he  raised  Jesus  from  the  dead  for  our  justi- 
fication (Rom.  4:25).  Our  Lord  himself  says, 
"Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you.  He  that  heareth 

41 


What  Is  Salvation  f 

my  word,  and  believeth  on  him  that  sent  me,  hath 
everlasting  Hfe,  and  shall  not  come  into  condem- 
nation; but  is  passed  from  death  unto  life"  (John 
5:24).  That  settles  it.  I  believe  on  Jesus.  I 
know  that  I  am  saved.  Because  God  says  so. 
And  I  believe  him.  "For  I  know  whom  I  have 
believed,  and  am  persuaded  that  he  is  able  to  keep 
that  which  I  have  committed  unto  him  against 
that  day"  (II  Tim.  1:12). 

Dr.  J.  Wilbur  Chapman  tells  of  a  period  of 
doubt  that  he  had  in  his  own  Christian  life,  years 
ago,  when  he  was  not  sure  whether  he  was  saved, 
and  could  not  seem  to  get  clear  on  it.  He  told 
Mr.  Moody  one  day  that  for  some  reason  or 
other  he  could  not  seem  to  believe. 

Moody  wheeled  sharply  around  upon  him. 
''Whom  can't  you  believe?"  he  demanded. 

And  Chapman  saw  the  point.  He  had  been 
saying  that,  "somehow,"  he  could  not  believe 
God!  Now  he  saw  that  he  could  believe  God. 
He  saw  that  he  could  not  disbelieve  God.  And  he 
rested  thankfully  in  the  fact  of  his  salvation. 

Some  years  ago  I  was  talking  with  a  Christian 
man  who  rather  prided  himself  on  being  of  a 
scientific  and  investigating  turn  of  mind.  "What 
do  you  mean  by  'being  saved'?"  he  asked  me.  I 
answered  in  a  somewhat  hesitating  and  cautious 
way,  saying  something  about  salvation  as  being 
eternal  fellowship  with  God,  and  being  "lost"  as 


42 


Past,  Present,  and  Future 

meaning  eternal  separation  from  God.  Well, 
that  is  true,  but  if  I  were  asked  that  question  to- 
day I  should  not  try  to  tone  down  anything. 
When  a  man  is  saved  he  is  saved  from  going  to 
hell ;  and  he  is  saved  to  going  to  heaven. 

One  of  the  strongest  Christian  leaders  of  our 
generation  said  to  me,  after  the  Billy  Sunday 
campaign  in  Philadelphia  in  1915,  that  one  of  the 
outstanding  lessons  he  had  learned  from  that 
campaign  was  this:  he  was  now  going  to  talk 
about  hell  more  than  he  had  been  doing. 

"Oh,  but  men  aren't  frightened  into  the  king- 
dom of  heaven,"  says  some  one.  That  is  a  devil- 
ishly clever  lie.  Men  are  frightened  into  turning 
from  their  sins  and  seeking  a  way  of  escape  from 
hell  and  the  pains  of  hell  which  they  know  is 
the  end  of  the  sinner  who  does  not  find  some  way 
of  escape.  At  any  rate,  Jesus  seemed  to  believe 
that  fear  played  a  very  important  part  in  the 
message  that  he  came  from  heaven  to  earth  to 
bring  to  men.  John  the  Baptist,  under  the  in- 
spiration of  the  Holy  Spirit,  seemed  to  think  so. 
The  Holy  Spirit  himself,  in  the  writing  of  the 
Bible  and  in  the  directing  of  God's  prophets  and 
messengers,  seems  to  think  so.  And  God's  method 
is  a  safe  one  for  us  to  use, — until  we  find  a  better. 

It  was  not  Billy  Sunday,  but  John  the  Baptist, 
who  flamed  out,  "O  generation  of  vipers,  who 
hath  warned  you  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come  ? 
Bring   forth  therefore   fruits  meet   for  repent- 


43 


What  Is  Salvation  f 

ance:  .  .  .  And  now  also  the  ax  is  laid  unto 
the  root  of  the  trees :  therefore  every  tree  which 
bringeth  not  forth  good  fruit  is  hewn  down,  and 
cast  into  the  fire.  I  indeed  baptize  you  with 
water  unto  repentance :  but  he  that  cometh  after 
me  is  mightier  than  I,  whose  shoes  I  am  not 
worthy  to  bear:  he  shall  baptize  you  with  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  with  fire:  Whose  fan  is  in  his 
hand,  and  he  will  throughly  purge  his  floor,  and 
gather  his  wheat  into  the  garner ;  but  he  will  burn 
up  the  chaff  with  unquenchable  fire"  (Matt. 
3:7-12). 

Have  you  made  a  special  study  of  what  the 
New  Testament  says  about  hell  ?  Every  one  who 
would  tell  men  the  Good  News  of  Jesus  Christ 
ought  to  do  so.  For  what  makes  the  Good  News 
so  good  is  its  shining  contrast  with  the  blackness 
and  hopelessness  of  the  world  and  mankind  with- 
out the  Good  News. 

See  what  our  Lord  himself  says  about  hell,  for 
example, — and  remember  that  the  most  terrible 
words  about  hell  come  from  the  lips  of  Christ 
himself, — in  Mark  9:40-48,  as  he  declares  that 
any  cost,  such  as  cutting  off  the  hand  or  the  foot, 
or  plucking  out  the  eye,  is  better  than  to  be  "cast 
into  hell  fire :  Where  their  worm  dieth  not,  and 
the  fire  is  not  quenched."  Read  his  account  of 
the  torments  of  the  rich  man  after  death,  vainly 
asking  that  Lazarus  might  "dip  the  tip  of  his 
finger  in  water,  and  cool  my  tongue;  for  I  am 


44 


Past,  Present,  and  Future 

tormented  in  this  flame";  and  then  the  terrible 
reply  from  paradise  that  this  cannot  be,  because 
"between  us  and  you  there  is  a  great  gulf  fixed : 
so  that  they  which  would  pass  from  hence  to  you 
cannot;  neither  can  they  pass  to  us,  that  would 
come  from  thence"  (Luke  16:19-31). 

See  what  is  said  of  the  fate  of  those  who,  at 
the  coming  of  Christ,  are  found  knowing  not 
God,  nor  obeying  the  Gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  when  the  Lord  Jesus  himself  comes  "in 
flaming  fire  taking  vengeance  on  them  .  .  . 
who  shall  be  punished  with  everlasting  destruc- 
tion from  the  presence  of  the  Lord,  and  from  the 
glory  of  his  power"  (II  Thess.  1 :7-9). 

And  in  the  last  book  of  the  entire  Bible,  almost 
at  the  end  of  that  book,  when  the  glorified  Christ 
has  unveiled  to  his  beloved  apostle  things  that  are 
to  come,  he  not  only  says  that  "the  devil  that  de- 
ceived them  was  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire  and 
brimstone,  where  the  beast  and  the  false  prophet 
are,  and  shall  be  tormented  day  and  night  for  ever 
and  ever,"  but  also  that  at  the  "great  white 
throne"  of  judgment  before  God,  "whosoever 
was  not  found  written  in  the  book  of  life  was 
cast  into  the  lake  of  fire"  (Rev.  20:10-15). 

Do  you  believe  what  God  says  about  hell  ?  Two 
Christian  men  were  talking  about  this  recently, 
and  as  the  awfulness  and  unspeakable  tragedy  of 
it  swept  over  their  souls,  they  both  said  to  each 
other  that  it  made  them  feel  that  they  must  go 


45 


What  Is  Salvation  f 

out  on  the  streets  then  and  there  and  preach 
Christ  to  men. 

Is  it  an  accident  that  the  greatest  soul-winners 
beHeve  in  hell,  and  also  believe  in  a  Christ  who 
can  save  from  hell? 

We  have  a  threefold  salvation :  For  the  past, 
the  present,  and  the  future. 

Our  salvation  for  the  past  is  that,  through  the 
substitutionary  death  of  Christ  on  the  cross,  in 
our  stead  and  place,  we  are  saved  from  the 
penalty  of  our  sins. 

That  work  of  salvation  was  finished  nineteen 
centuries  ago.  It  was  done  then,  all  done,  done 
so  perfectly  and  completely  that  God  is  absolutely 
satisfied  with  it,  and  will  be  through  time  and 
eternity.  Nothing  that  man  or  God  can  ever  do 
will  or  can  add  anything  to  the  completion,  the 
perfection,  of  the  salvation  there  wrought. 

God  showed  that  he  was  satisfied  with  what  his 
Son  Jesus  had  done  on  the  cross  when  he  raised 
the  dead  body  of  that  Son,  lying  cold  and  lifeless 
and  helpless  in  the  tomb,  to  life  again. 

And  in  view  of  the  perfect  and  complete  work 
that  the  Son  of  God  did  in  paying  the  penalty  of 
the  sins  of  the  world,  have  you  realized  that,  ever 
since  that  time,  no  sinner,  no  unsaved  person, 
need  ever  or  ought  ever  to  make  the  prayer,  "God 
be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner"?  Such  a  prayer  is 
an  insult  to  God.     Why? 


46 


Past,  Present,  and  Future 

Because  God,  from  that  day  to  this,  has  been 
teUing  the  world  of  unsaved  sinners  that  he  was 
merciful  to  them  all  when  he  gave  his  only  begot- 
ten Son  to  die  in  their  place  and  to  receive  in  him- 
self the  penalty  that  they  deserved.  That  was  the 
mercy  of  God :  giving  us  "the  unspeakable  gift" 
(II  Cor.  9:15). 

Suppose  I  owe  you  a  million  dollars ;  and  there 
is  no  hope  of  my  paying  you.  Suppose  a  friend 
pays  this  debt  for  me,  and  you  accept  the  pay- 
ment and  give  him  a  receipt  in  full.  Suppose  I 
am  told  that  the  debt  is  paid,  and  that  I  am  com- 
pletely free  from  all  obligation  in  the  matter.  And 
then  suppose  I  ask  you  for  mercy,  plead  with 
you  to  be  merciful  to  me  in  this  matter.  Wouldn't 
it  be  an  insult?  Would  I  not  be  showing  that  I 
feared  that  you,  although  paid  in  full,  were  the 
sort  of  person  who  would  yet  try  to  take  some 
advantage  of  me  in  this  matter?  Now  God, 
against  whom  all  our  sin  is  committed,  and  who 
therefore  is  the  one  to  whom  the  world  owes  its 
unspeakable,  unpayable  debt  for  sin,  accepted  the 
payment  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  he  gave  a  receipt  in 
fvJl  when  he  raised  him  from  the  dead.  That 
was  God's  declaration  that  he  was  satisfied  with 
the  payment,  satisfied  with  the  perfect  work  that 
Christ  had  done.  For  he  "raised  up  Jesus  our 
Lord  from  the  dead ;  who  was  delivered  for  our 
offences,  and  was  raised  again  for  our  justifica- 
tion" (Rom.  4:24,  25). 


47 


What  Is  Salvation  f 

We  need  not  fear  that  God  is  going  to  ask  for 
payment  twice  for  the  same  debt.  We  need  not 
ask  God  to  be  merciful  to  us  because  we  are  sin- 
ners. God  does  not  want  us  to  do  that.  He 
wants  us  to  thank  him  for  the  gift  of  his  Son 
whereby  our  debt  was  paid ;  he  wants  us  to  accept 
the  mercy  that  he  so  freely  offers  in  the  death  of 
Christ.  When  we  do  this,  when  by  simple  faith 
we  accept  Jesus  as  our  Saviour,  the  debt  is  per- 
fectly paid  in  our  case, — the  payment  is  so  perfect 
that  God  cannot  add  anything  to  it.  Our  salva- 
tion then  is  in  the  past. 

That  is  our  Justification. 

But  there  is  a  present  salvation  also  that  we 
need.  Our  justification  gives  us  freedom  from 
the  penalty  of  our  sin,  that  death-penalty  which 
is  hell.  Meantime  we  go  on  living,  under  con- 
stant temptation,  and  we  need  a  deliverance  from 
the  power  of  sin.  Does  our  salvation  include 
this? 

Praise  God,  it  does.  But  many  a  Christian 
does  not  know  it. 

Suppose  you  were  one  of  a  prisonful  of  con- 
victed criminals,  all  sentenced  to  hard  labor  for 
a  long  term  of  years,  then  to  have  their  lives 
ended  by  the  death-penalty  of  the  electric  chair. 
Not  a  pleasant  outlook,  for  either  the  present  or 
the  future.  But  just  that  is  the  outlook  for  the 
unsaved  man.     "The  way  of  the  transgressor  is 


48 


Past,  Present,  and  Future 

hard"  (Prov.  13:15)  ;  and  the  end  is  hell.  But 
suppose,  while  you  were  one  of  the  convicted 
criminals  in  this  prison,  you  were  told  that  you 
had  been  pardoned  from  the  death-penalty,  while 
at  the  same  time  you  stayed  on  in  the  prison  at 
hard  labor.  That  is  the  condition  of  many  a 
Christian.  He  knows  that  he  is  saved  from  the 
eternal  death-penalty  of  his  sins.  But,  oh,  the 
bondage  of  sin  in  the  meantime!  And  there  is 
no  more  reason  for  the  Christian  living  on  in  the 
bondage  of  sin  than  there  would  be  for  any  pris- 
oner remaining  at  hard  labor  in  that  prison  if  a 
full  and  free  pardon  had  been  issued  to  all  there, 
not  only  from  the  death-penalty,  but  also  from 
labor  and  imprisonment  of  any  sort.  The  thing 
to  do  then  would  be  to  walk  out  at  once,  free. 

Dr.  C.  I.  Scofield  tells  of  a  Mississippi  woman 
whose  family,  at  the  time  of  the  Civil  War,  had 
a  large  plantation  and  many  negro  slaves;  and 
who  one  day  called  her  slaves  together  and  said, 
"You  are  free.  The  North  has  conquered,  and 
the  Proclamation  of  Emancipation  has  been 
issued  by  the  President,  and  you  are  all  free." 
It  took  her  a  week  to  get  any  of  those  slaves  to 
believe  it.  Finally  it  got  to  them  from  other 
sources,  and  they  began  to  believe  that  it  was  so, 
that  they  were  really  free. 

Were  they  any  freer,  in  reality,  at  the  end  of 
that  week  than  at  the  beginning?  Did  Lincoln 
then  add  anything  to  their  freedom  ? 


49 


What  Is  Salvation  f 

Were  the  best  workers,  the  most  moral  slaves 
on  that  plantation,  any  freer,  after  the  emancipa- 
tion came,  than  the  lowest-down,  most  shiftless, 
worthless  slaves? 

No ;  all  were  equally  free :  for  none  were  free 
because  of  what  they  had  been  or  done,  but 
because  of  the  freedom  that  another  had  given. 

Now  listen  to  what  God  says  about  the  freedom 
of  the  Christian : 

"My  little  children,  these  things  write  I  unto 
you  that  ye  may  not  sin.  Sin  shall  not  have 
dominion  over  you:  for  ye  are  not  under  law 
[which  says  do],  but  under  grace  [which  says 
done].  My  grace  is  sufficient  for  thee:  for  my 
power  is  made  perfect  in  weakness.  Wherefore 
also  he  is  able  to  save  to  the  uttermost  [or,  com- 
pletely] them  that  draw  near  unto  God  through 
him,  seeing  he  ever  liveth  to  make  intercession 
for  them.  There  hath  no  temptation  taken  you 
but  such  as  man  can  bear:  but  God  is  faithful, 
who  will  not  suffer  you  to  be  tempted  above  that 
ye  are  able;  but  will  with  the  temptation  make 
also  the  way  of  escape,  that  ye  may  be  able  to 
endure  it.  I  can  do  all  things  through  Christ 
which  strengtheneth  me.  Thou  shalt  call  his  name 
Jesus  ;  for  it  is  he  that  shall  save  his  people  from 
their  sins — that  ye  may  become  blameless  and 
harmless,  children  of  God  without  blemish  in  the 
midst  of  a  crooked  and  perverse  generation, 
among  whom  ye  are  seen  as  lights  in  the  world. 

50 


Past,  Present,  and  Future 

Now  unto  him  that  is  able  to  guard  you  from 
stumbhng !  Thanks  be  unto  God,  who  always  lead- 
£th  us  in  triumph  in  Christ !  Our  old  man  was  cru- 
cified with  him,  that  the  body  of  sin  might  be  done 
away,  that  so  we  should  no  longer  be  in  bondage 
to  sin ;  for  he  that  hath  died  is  released  from  sin. 
As  therefore  ye  received  Christ  Jesus  the  Lord, 
so  walk  in  him.  For  by  grace  have  ye  been  saved 
through  faith;  and  that  not  of  yourselves,  it  is 
the  gift  of  God ;  not  of  works,  that  no  man  should 
glory."*  (I  John  2:1;  Rom.  6 :14 ;  II  Cor.  12 :9 ; 
Heb.  7 :  25  ;  I  Cor.  10:13;  Phil.  4:13;  Matt.  1:21; 
Phil.  2:15;  Jude  24;  II  Cor.  2:14;  Rom.  6:6,  7; 
Col.  2:6;  Eph.  2:8,  9). 

Yes,  God  offers  us  in  Jesus  Christ  a  present 
salvation,  freedom  from  the  power  of  sin.  This 
is  our  Sanctification.  As  some  one  has  well  said, 
we  are  separated  from  sin,  and  we  are  separated 
to  God. 

Our  salvation  is  complete,  yet  our  salvation  is 
not  complete.  Our  salvation  from  the  penalty  of 
sin  is  unimprovably  perfect  and  complete,  fin- 
ished and  past.  Our  salvation  from  the  power  of 
sin  is  complete  moment  by  moment  as  we  trust 
moment  by  moment  in  the  sufficiency  of  Christ 
for  this.  Yet  we  still  have  the  possibility  of  sin- 
ning; we  are  still  living  in  sin-injured  bodies, 


*  The  text  of  these  passages  as  here  quoted  is  from  the 
American  Standard  Version  of  the  Bible,  Copyright,  1901,  by 
Thomas  Nelson  &  Sons,  to  insure  purity  of  text. 

51 


What  Is  Salvation  f 

subject  to  sin,  disease,  and  death.     Is  there  no 
salvation  from  this? 

Yes,  praise  God;  we  have  a  future  salvation, 
which  is  to  be  ours  at  the  coming  of  Christ.  That 
is  the  "hope"  part  of  our  salvation,  the  forward 
look,  the  "blessed  hope"  that  is  taken  up  more 
fully  in  the  next  chapter. 

In  this  future  part  of  our  salvation  we  are  to 
be  delivered  from  the  very  possibility  of  sinning. 
Our  future  salvation  is  "the  glory  which  shall  be 
revealed  in  us.  For  the  earnest  expectation  of 
the  creation  waiteth  for  the  manifestation  of  the 
sons  of  God  .  .  .  because  the  creation  itself 
also  shall  be  delivered  from  the  bondage  of  cor- 
ruption into  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  children 
of  God."  Meantime  we  are  "waiting  for  the 
adoption,  to  wit,  the  redemption  of  our  body" 
(Rom.  8:18-23). 

We  have  a  glorious  salvation  now;  we  are  to 
have  a  still  more  glorious  salvation.  "Beloved, 
now  are  we  the  sons  of  God,  and  it  doth  not  yet 
appear  what  we  shall  be :  but  we  know  that,  when 
he  shall  appear,  we  shall  be  like  him ;  for  we  shall 
see  him  as  he  is"  (I  John  3:2). 

What  is  it,  then,  that  is  going  to  complete  our 
salvation?  Not  death — death  is  an  enemy,  "the 
last  enemy  that  shall  be  destroyed"  (I  Cor. 
15:26).  Through  death,  it  is  true,  the  believer 
passes  into  the  presence  of  the  Lord,  and  into 
wonderful  joy  and  blessedness  (Phil.  1:21-23). 


52 


Past,  Present,  and  Future 

But  those  who  have  already  died  in  Christ,  saved 
through  faith  in  him,  and  who  are  in  his  presence 
today,  are  still  looking  forward  to  the  future  part 
of  their  salvation.  It  will  be  theirs,  and  ours, 
when  Christ  comes  again.  Then  it  is  that  these 
bodies  of  corruption  will  be  changed  and  raised 
incorruptible.  Then  it  is  that  death  will  be  swal- 
lowed up  in  victory  (I  Cor.  15:  52-54).  Then  it 
is  that  Christ  himself  shall  appear,  and  the 
''blessed  hope"  be  fulfilled.  This  is  our  Glorifica- 
tion. 

These  are  the  wonderful  facts  included  for  us 
in  the  salvation  we  have  in  Christ  Jesus,  for  our 
past,  our  present,  and  our  future.  This  is  the 
Good  News  of  our  deliverance,  through  Christ, 
from  the  Penalty,  the  Power,  the  Presence  and 
Possibility  of  sin. 

A  remarkable  passage  in  the  New  Testament 
sums  up  this  threefold  salvation  of  the  believer, 
for  past,  present,  and  future,  in  these  words: 
"For  the  grace  of  God  that  bringeth  salvation 
hath  appeared  to  all  men  [in  the  past,  when 
Jesus  died  for  our  sins],  teaching  us  that,  deny- 
ing ungodliness  and  worldly  lusts,  we  should  live 
soberly,  righteously,  and  godly,  in  this  present 
world  [that  all  may  see  that  we  have  a  present 
salvation  from  the  power  of  sin]  ;  looking  for 
that  blessed  hope,  and  the  glorious  appearing  of 
the  great  God  and  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ" 
(Tit.  2:11-13). 


53 


What  Is  Salvation  f 

Are  we  praising  God  for  these  three  great  facts 
of  our  salvation? 

Are  we  telHng  others,  everywhere,  in  season 
and  out  of  season,  of  the  threefold  Good  News 
which  God  has  for  them  through  Jesus  Christ? 


54 


Salvation's  Forward  Look 
The  Blessed  Hope 

HAS  the  truth  of  our  Lord's  return  prop- 
erly a  place  in  a  series  of  simple  mes- 
sages on  the  Gospel?  Should  it  be 
brought  into  the  evangelistic  appeal  to  "the  man 
in  the  street"? 

Ask  Paul,  or  Peter,  or  James,  or  John.  Ask 
"the  man  in  the  street"  himself  what  he  knows 
about  the  Lord's  return,  and  whether  he  would 
like  to  know  more  about  it. 

Not  only  has  the  truth  of  Christ's  second 
coming  a  larger  place  in  the  New  Testament 
than  any  other  doctrine  there,  but  the  present 
world  war  has  turned  the  attention  of  people 
everywhere  to  this  truth  as  never  before  in  the 
history  of  the  world.  It  is  our  golden  oppor- 
tunity to  tell  of  the  "Blessed  Hope,"  and  to  get 
a  hearing  for  it  that  will  gladden  the  heart  of 
the  evangelist  and  of  our  Lord  himself. 

A  business  man  who  had  no  special  interest  in 
religion  or  the  Bible  was  in  the  office  of  a  Chris- 
tian lawyer  in  Philadelphia,  not  long  ago,  dis- 

55 


Salvation's  Forward  Look 

cussing  the  details  of  a  business  matter  they  had 
in  hand.  As  they  finished  their  conference,  the 
conversation  turned  to  the  tragic  war  that  is 
convulsing  the  world.  "I  don't  know  what  you 
think  about  it,"  said  the  business  man,  "but  it 
seems  to  me  that  things  are  in  such  hopeless 
chaos  now  that  nothing  can  ever  straighten 
them  out  short  of  God  Almighty  himself  com- 
ing down  to  this  earth  and  doing  the  job." 

"You  struck  the  nail  on  the  head  that  time," 
answered  the  lawyer,  who  happened  to  be  not 
only  a  real  Christian  but  one  who  is  looking  for 
and  loves  the  appearing  of  the  Lord.  "That  is 
exactly  what  is  needed ;  and  that  is  exactly  what 
the  Bible  says  God  is  going  to  do  about  it." 

"What  do  you  mean?"  asked  the  friend,  in 
surprise. 

Then  the  Christian  man  had  his  opportunity; 
and  in  a  few  minutes  he  told  his  unbelieving 
friend  some  of  the  facts  about  Christ's  coming 
back  to  this  earth,  with  all  that  this  shall  mean 
to  believers,  and  to  unbelievers,  and  to  the  world 
in  general. 

"Take  this  little  book  along  with  you,  and  read 
it  if  you  get  a  chance ;  it  will  tell  you  more  about 
this  wonderful  truth,"  said  the  lawyer  as  his 
friend  was  leaving;  and  he  handed  him  a  book 
on  the  truth  of  our  Lord's  return. 

A  little  later  the  business  man,  who  had  had 
no  interest  in  religion  or  the  Bible,  came  back 


56 


The  Blessed  Hope 

to  his  lawyer  friend  and  wanted  to  know  more 
about  the  new  Hne  of  truth  on  which  he  had 
been  started.  Gladly  further  help  was  given; 
and  it  was  not  long  before  that  irreligious,  un- 
believing man  had  seen  the  way  of  salvation 
through  the  death  of  Christ  his  Saviour,  and 
had  taken  that  Saviour  into  his  own  heart,  by 
simple  faith,  that  he  might  be  ready  for  Him 
when  He  should  come. 

Jesus  is  coming!  Oh,  let  us  make  this  our 
slogan  for  Christ!  The  unsaved  world  is  en- 
titled to  know  that  Jesus  is  coming.  We  are 
recreant  to  the  trust  Christ  places  in  us  as  be- 
lievers, as  members  of  his  body,  as  his  ambassa- 
dors, if  we  do  not  deliver  this  message.  Jesus 
is  coming!  Are  you  ready  for  him?  That  is 
the  searching  question  he  would  have  us  ask 
souls  everywhere. 

The  little  book  bearing  that  title,  "Jesus  is 
Coming,"  by  W.  E.  Blackstone,'  is  one  of  the 
blessedest  books  to  read,  and  to  study,  and  to 
give  others  to  read,  on  this  central  truth.  God 
has  blessed  its  message  during  the  last  twenty 
or  thirty  years,  having  it  translated  into  many 
different  languages,  and  sending  it  throughout 
the  world  to  lead  unnumbered  thousands  into 
the  joy  of  looking  for  their  Lord. 

The  Business  Men's  War  Council  of  the 
Pocket  Testament  League   (J.  Lewis  Twaddell, 

1  Published   by    Fleming   H.    Revell    Co.,    158    Fifth   Avenue, 
New  York  City,  paper,  30  cents;  cloth,  60  cents. 

57 


Salvation's  Forward  Look 

Treasurer,  520  Witherspoon  Building,  Philadel- 
phia) recently  received  a  letter  from  a  Y.  M.  C. 
A.  secretary  in  one  of  the  southern  camps,  ask- 
ing them  to  tell  him  of  some  book  that  would 
give  him  the  facts  about  Christ's  second  coming. 
For,  said  he,  the  soldiers  were  asking  him  to 
tell  them  about  this,  and  he  wanted  to  be  able 
to  do  so. 

A  gray-haired  police  officer  in  Philadelphia 
recently,  as  my  wife  made  room  in  a  crowded 
trolley  car  so  that  he  could  get  a  seat,  thanked 
her,  and  then  fell  into  conversation  with  her; 
and  in  a  moment  or  two  he  let  fall  a  remark 
that  disclosed  that  he  was  looking  for  the  return 
of  Christ.  He  was  evidently  a  devout  Christian, 
and  he  knew  the  Word  of  God.  He  saw  no 
solution  for  the  way  in  which  the  age  is  going 
save  the  personal  return  of  Jesus  himself. 

There  is  probably  more  literature  on  the  sub- 
ject of  our  Lord's  return  today  than  in  any  time 
since  his  ascension.  What  does  this  mean?  Is 
it  an  accident?  Or  is  God  himself  bringing  it 
to  pass  that,  as  the  end  of  the  age  draws  near, 
the  truth  of  Christ's  coming  shall  be  rescued 
from  the  well-nigh  oblivion  into  which  it  had 
fallen,  and  people  be  given  a  fair  opportunity 
to  know  thi«  part  of  the  Gospel  which  belongs 
to  them  because  "God  so  loved  the  world"? 

If  one  has  honest  doubt  as  to  what  the  truth 
concerning  our  Lord's  return  really  is,  let  him 


58 


The  Blessed  Hope 

try  the  plan  a  friend  of  mine  followed  when  he 
wanted  to  silence  some  people  who  were  going 
after  him  in  this  matter. 

He  was  a  Princeton  football  player  in  his 
undergraduate  days;  and  he  went  out  to  India 
as  a  missionary,  big  in  body,  mind  and  heart. 
He  had  been  trained,  as  so  many  good  Christian 
people  are,  to  suppose  that  the  world  is  getting 
better,  and  that  the  churches  are  going  to  Chris- 
tianize the  world,  and  that  at  some  vague,  far 
distant  day  when  the  world  has  gotten  to  be  a 
miniature  heaven  through  the  influence  and 
power  of  the  Church  on  earth,  Christ  will  come 
back-  again. 

In  his  mission  station  in  India  there  were 
some  women  missionaries  from  Great  Britain 
who  were  eager  believers  in  the  blessed  hope  of 
our  Lord's  return.  When  they  found  that  he 
was  not,  they  started  in  to  set  him  right!  They 
did  this  very  persistently,  quoting  Scripture  to 
him  with  great  freedom.  He  stood  his  ground 
against  them,  but  he  found  himself  unable  to 
give  them  as  direct  Scripture  to  prove  his  po- 
sition as  they  were  to  prove  theirs. 

So  he  decided  to  meet  them  on  their  own 
ground,  and  to  silence  them.  He  went  at  it  in 
a  systematic,  honest  way.  He  took  his  Bible, 
and  a  notebook,  and  he  started  in  to  study  the 
Word  of  God  in  order  to  bring  together  the  pas- 
sages that  should  show  that  he  was  right  and 

59 


Salvation's  Forward  Look 

they  were  wrong.  Every  passage  that  seemed 
to  prove  his  position  he  set  down  under  a  cer- 
tain classification;  if  there  were  any  passages 
that  seemed  to  be  in  favor  of  their  position,  he 
set  them  under  another  classification.  And  so 
he  went  faithfully  on  with  his  Bible  study  for 
several  months.  At  the  end  of  that  time,  he 
told  me,  he  was  ready  for  them.  "But,"  he  said, 
"the  only  trouble  was  that  when  I  had  got  my 
material  all  together  I  discovered  that  they  were 
right  and  I  was  wrong.  There  was  no  other 
conclusion  to  reach  from  the  Bible  itself !" 

You  will  not  find  many  persons  who  have 
honestly  sought  out  what  God  says  about  Christ's 
coming,  who  come  to  any  other  conclusion.  It 
is  human  reason,  human  opinions,  our  natural, 
not  God's  supernatural,  views,  that  deny  the 
coming  of  Christ  to  this  earth  to  do  here  what 
he  has  never  asked  his  Church  even  to  attempt 
to  do:  establish  righteousness  on  the  earth  and 
Christianize  society  and  the  world. 

How  shall  we  bring  the  blessed  hope  into  our 
evangelistic  message? 

Make  the  ringing  declaration,  quietly  but 
earnestly  and  with  a  conviction  that  men  cannot 
escape,  that  Jesus  is  coming.  We  shall  have  ex- 
plained, if  we  are  following  any  such  simple 
plan  as  this  little  book  outlines,  why  men  are 
lost,  and  how  men  are  saved.  We  shall  have 
told  about  Jesus,  and  why  he  had  to  die  if  men 


60 


The  Blessed  Hope 

were  to  be  saved;  we  shall  have  told  that  his 
death  paid  the  penalty  of  all  who  have  sinned, 
and  that  all  he  asks  us  to  do  is  to  believe  on  him 
and  be  saved. 

Then  is  the  time  to  bring  out  the  blessed  truth 
that  Jesus  is  coming  again — and  are  you  ready 
to  have  him  come?  If  he  should  come  today, 
would  you  be  glad? 

"Nothing  is  as  certain  as  death  and  taxes," 
people  say  cynically.  It  doesn't  happen  to  be 
true.  Taxes  may  be  reasonably  certain  in  this 
life;  but  death  is  by  no  means  certain  for  the 
Christian.  An  entire  generation  of  Christians, 
with  all  the  millions  that  this  may  mean,  are 
never  going  to  have  the  experience  of  physical 
death.  Tell  people  this;  it  will  startle  many  of 
them.  You  may  never  die!  If  you  have  taken 
Jesus  as  your  Saviour,  or  if  you  will  take  him 
as  your  Saviour  now,  and  if  he  comes  in  your 
lifetime,  as  he  may,  you  will  never  know  phys- 
ical death.  "We  shall  not  all  sleep,"  rang  out 
Paul's  infallible,  Spirit-given  message,  speaking 
as  a  believer  to  believers  of  the  Christian  era, 
"but  we  shall  all  be  changed."  Not  every  Chris- 
tian will  die;  but  all  Christians,  both  the  dead 
and  the  living,  will  be  changed  at  the  coming  of 
Christ  as  they  receive  their  glorious,  incorrupt- 
ible resurrection  bodies.  For  "we  which  are 
alive  and  remain  unto  the  coming  of  the  Lord 
.  .  .  shall  be  caught  up  together  with  them 
[the  believing  dead  who  are  then  raised  from 

61 


Salvation's  Forzvard  Look 

the  dead]  in  the  clouds,  to  meet  the  Lord  in  the 
air:  and  so  shall  we  ever  be  with  the  Lord"  (I 
Thess.  4:15, 17). 

Let  us  tell  men  how  plainly  the  Bible,  from 
Genesis  to  Revelation,  records  with  inspired  ac- 
curacy the  course  of  the  various  historical  dis- 
pensations, or  ages  of  mankind  on  this  earth; 
how  every  such  age  has  begun  by  God's  giving 
men  opportunity  to  believe  on  him  and  serve 
him  and  be  blessed;  how  the  majority  of  men's 
response,  without  exception  through  the  ages, 
has  been  to  reject  the  opportunity  God  has  thus 
repeatedly  given  them,  with  the  result  that  man- 
kind has  gone  down-grade  in  each  age,  sinking 
so  low  that  God  in  his  mercy  had  to  end  the  age 
with  judgment  and  punishment  for  man's  sin, 
and  then  has  given  mankind  another  opportunity 
and  a  fresh  start, 

John  Kelman,  of  Edinburgh,  tells  of  having 
been  in  America  some  years  ago  and  having  an 
interesting  discussion  with  a  leading  American 
layman  about  this  great  country  and  its  possi- 
bilities. Kelman  asked  the  American  what,  as 
he  saw  it,  was  America's  greatest  need.  Prompt- 
ly came  the  reply,  "America's  greatest  need  is  a 
king,  an  absolute  monarch." 

"What!"  exclaimed  the  Scotchman.  "A  king 
in  this  great  democracy !  What  do  you  mean 
by  that?" 


62 


The  Blessed  Hope 

"Yes,"  came  the  quiet  reply ;  "and  we  know  the 
man.     His  name  is  Jesus  Christ." 

Not  until  the  King  comes,  in  personal,  visible 
presence  to  establish  his  kingdom  on  earth, 
bringing  all  lands  and  all  men  under  his  per- 
sonal reign,  will  America's  problem  be  solved, 
or  the  problems  of  any  nation  on  earth.  But 
this  is  not  a  vain  hope ;  this  is  our  Blessed  Hope ; 
for  the  King  is  coming. 

God  is  honoring  the  teaching  of  Christ's  com- 
ing, as  never  before,  perhaps,  in  the  Christian 
era;  because  Christ's  coming  is  nearer  than  it 
ever  was  before.  And  what  more  fitting  than 
that  God  should  see  to  it  that  the  doctrine  of 
our  Lord's  return  should  be  given  unmistak- 
able proclamation  just  before  the  King  comes ! 

It  is  not  a  visionary  or  speculative  doctrine. 
God's  Word  is  never  speculative.  God's  Word 
is  the  Rock  of  Ages;  other  things  are  uncertain 
indeed,  but  with  God  there  "is  no  variableness, 
neither  shadow  of  turning"  (James  1 :17)  ;  "one 
jot  or  one  tittle  shall  in  no  wise  pass  from  the 
law,  till  all  be  fulfilled"  (Matt.  5:18). 

The  truth  of  our  Lord's  return  is  one  of  the 
most  practical  truths  in  human  life.  It  affects 
daily  life;  it  can  and  it  ought  to  dominate  daily 
life.  God  means  that  it  should.  It  is  not  a  doc- 
trine of  the  Bible ;  it  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Bible. 
From  the  time  when,  through  some  mystery, 
Satan   was    permitted    of    God    to    become    the 

63 


Salvation's  Forward  Look 

"prince  of  this  world"  (John  14:30),  things 
have  not  been  as  they  should  be,  and  things  can 
never  be  as  they  should  be,  until  the  rightful 
Prince  of  this  world  comes  back,  casts  out  the 
usurper,  and  takes  his  own  place  on  the  throne 
that  belongs  to  him. 

Dr.  A.  C.  Dixon,  the  great  Bible  teacher  and 
evangelist,  now  pastor  of  Spurgeon's  famous 
church  in  London,  tells  of  an  incident  in  his  own 
family  life.  He  went  away  from  home  on  a 
trip,  having  told  his  wife  that  he  did  not  know 
just  when  he  could  return,  but  that  he  would 
come  back  at  the  earliest  possible  moment. 

The  next  morning  his  little  girls  said  to  their 
mother,  "Mother,  may  we  put  on  our  white 
dresses  today,  so  that  we  can  go  down  to  the 
train  to  meet  father  if  he  should  come  back?" 
They  were  allowed  to  do  this,  and  were  on  the 
lookout  for  their  father ;  but  he  did  not  come. 

The  next  day  they  made  the  same  request,  and 
again  they  were  allowed  to  wear  their  white 
dresses ;  and  their  mother  noticed  that  they  were 
scrupulously  careful  all  day  long  not  to  let  any 
spots  get  on  them. 

This  went  on,  day  after  day,  through  the 
week;  and  the  children  had  never  before  kept 
themselves  so  fresh  and  sweet  and  clean.  When 
finally  the  time  came  that  their  father  did  return, 
he  found  his  children  expectantly  awaiting  him, 
dressed  in  their  clean  white  dresses,  and  rejoic- 


64 


The  Blessed  Hope 

ing  to  see  him,  because  they  were  ready  and 
prepared. 

We  shall  keep  clean  if  we  are  looking  for 
Jesus'  return.  God  asks  us  to  do  so.  "Every 
man,"  he  says,  "that  hath  this  hope  in  him  puri- 
fieth  himself,  even  as  he  [Christ]  is  pure"  (I 
John  3:3).  The  inspired  writer  has  just  been 
speaking  of  our  Lord's  coming;  a  few  verses 
earlier  (2:28)  he  pleads  with  his  Christian 
readers  to  "abide  in  him;  that,  when  he  shall 
appear,  we  may  have  confidence,  and  not  be 
ashamed  before  him  at  his  coming." 

No,  the  Holy  Spirit  would  not  bring  a  doctrine 
into  mention  more  than  three  hundred  times  in 
the  New  Testament,  on  an  average  of  once  every 
twenty  verses,  if  it  were  not  a  vital  and  a  prac- 
tical doctrine. 

Howard  A.  Banks,  Associate  Editor  of  The 
Sunday  School  Times,  who  for  four  years  was 
Private  Secretary  to  Mr.  Daniels,  Secretary  of 
the  United  States  Navy,  says  that  when,  after 
years  of  Christian  life,  he  himself  came  to  see 
the  truth  of  our  Lord's  return,  it  came  into  his 
life  like  a  second  conversion. 

A  friend  in  Mr.  Banks'  boyhood  home  had 
been  led  to  attend  the  church  of  Dr.  James  H. 
Brookes,  in  St.  Louis.  Dr.  Brookes  was  one 
of  the  faithful  teachers  of  the  truth  of  our 
Lord's  return.  This  business  man  heard  that 
truth  preached  there,  and  he  became  so  inter- 

65 


Salvation's  Forward  Look 

ested  in  it  that  he  had  a  personal  interview  with 
the  minister. 

As  a  business  man  he  had  been  in  the  habit 
of  taking  a  glass  of  beer  every  day  after  his 
mid-day  lunch,  though  he  had  never  been  an 
intemperate  drinker.  The  day  after  his  per- 
sonal talk  with  Dr.  Brookes  he  went  into  a 
saloon  and  ordered  his  usual  glass  of  beer.  As 
he  lifted  the  glass  to  his  lips  the  thought  came 
into  his  mind,  "What  if  the  Lord  should  return 
at  this  moment?"  Quickly  he  set  the  glass  down 
on  the  bar,  handed  the  bartender  the  price  of  the 
drink,  turned  on  his  heel  and  left  that  saloon. 
He  had  not  touched  a  drop  in  that  glass, 
and  he  did  not  touch  another  drop  during  the 
rest  of  his  Hfe.  Never  again  did  he  enter  a 
saloon  except  to  hunt  for  lost  sheep  and  lead 
them  to  Jesus, — for  he  became  a  marvelous  soul- 
winner.  "I  rarely  knew,"  says  Mr.  Banks,  "of 
any  Christian  doctrine  to  transform  a  man's  life 
as  completely  as  the  hope  of  the  Lord's  coming 
transformed  this  friend  of  my  boyhood  days." 

Other  practical  results  that  the  Blessed  Hope 
will  have  in  the  believer's  life  have  been  brought 
together  by  some  one  in  the  following  list.  The 
truth  of  the  Lord's  return  makes  one: 

1.  Sober  (Luke  12:45;  I  Thess.  5:1-7). 

2.  Patient  (Jas.  5:7,  8). 

3.  Moderate   ("gentleness")    (Phil.  4:5). 

66 


The  Blessed  Hope 

4.  Charitable  (not  judging  others)  (I  Cor. 
4:5). 

5.  Diligent  (Luke  12:42,  43). 

6.  Pure  (I  John  3:2,3). 

7.  Always  abiding  in  Christ  (I  John  2:28). 
Christ's  coming  has  been  the  earth's  greatest 

need  since  sin  entered  the  universe  and  the 
human  race ;  it  is  the  world's  greatest  need  today. 
And  God  does  not  let  the  world's  greatest  need 
go  unmet.     Christ  is  coming  again. 

A  Japanese  Christian  whose  ministry  has  been 
greatly  blessed  of  God,  Kanzo  Uchimura,  says 
that  there  have  been  three  great  moments  in 
his  Hfe: 

"A  great  moment  in  my  life  was  when  I  found 
myself — or  rather,  was  found  by  God — ^to  be  a 
sinner.  For  years  my  supreme  effort  was  to 
make  myself  pure  and  holy  before  him. 

"Another  great  moment  was  when  I  found  my 
righteousness,  not  in  me,  but  in  him  who  was 
crucified  for  my  sins.  For  years  I  have  tried  to 
realize  in  myself  and  others  the  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ  and  him  crucified. 

"A  third,  and  perhaps  the  last  great  moment 
of  my  life,  was  when  I  was  shown  that  my  sal- 
vation is  not  yet,  and  that  when  Christ  shall 
appear  again,  then,  and  not  till  then,  shall  I  be 
like  him. 

"Conviction  of  sin,  salvation  by  faith,  and 
hope  of  his  coming, — these  are  three  steps  by 
which  my  soul  was  lifted  to  the  joy  and  freedom 
of  the  heavenly  vision." 

67 


VI 

Salvation  From  Sin  Now 
The  Victorious  Life 

A  MAN  had  a  friend  who  stammered,  and 
he  was  enthusiastically  telling  his  friend 
about  a  certain  institution  where  stam- 
mering could  be  cured.  "You  really  must  go 
and  t-t-try  it,"  he  said ;  "it  c-c-c-cured  me." 

As  witnesses  for  Christ,  telling  others  about 
the  power  of  Christ  over  sin,  we  don't  want  to 
be  in  the  position  of  that  man  who  was 
"c-c-c-cured."  But  is  it  not  true  that  a  good  many 
Christians  are  in  that  position?  Can  Christ  de- 
liver from  the  power  as  well  as  from  the  pen- 
alty of  sin?  He  says  he  can.  Do  we  believe 
him?  We  say  we  do.  But  are  we  delivered? 
What  is  the  matter? 

Fellow  Christians,  we  must  get  the  truth  about 
the  Victorious  Life.  It  is  the  key  to  everything. 
It  means  power  for  service.  It  means  peace — 
there  is  no  peace  without  victory.  It  means  joy 
— perpetual  joy,  undef eatable  joy.  It  means  a 
testimony  that  neither  man  nor  Satan  can  deny. 

69 


Salvation  from  Sin  Now 

Set  it  down,  first  of  all,  that  the  Victorious 
Life  is  the  effortless  life;  effortless  so  far  as 
victory  is  concerned.  We  do  not  get  victory  over 
sin  by  our  efforts.  For  it  is  a  life  in  which  we 
are  made  free;  and  the  man  who  is  made  free 
does  not  have  to  use  his  efforts  either  to  get  him- 
self free  or  to  keep  himself  free — it  is  done  for 
him.  Having  told  the  Jews  the  unwelcome  truth 
that  they  were  in  bondage  to  sin,  our  Lord 
showed  them  the  way  out  when  he  said,  "If  the 
Son  therefore  shall  make  you  free,  ye  shall  be 
free  indeed"  (John  8:36).  Paul  knew  the 
secret,  as  he  exulted  in  the  fact  that  "the  law  of 
the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  hath  made  me 
free  from  the  law  of  sin"  (Rom.  8:2).  We  do 
not  win  our  freedom.    It  has  been  won  for  us. 

That  is  the  meaning  of  grace :  something  that 
God  does  for  us,  not  something  that  we  do  for 
ourselves. 

And  our  salvation  is  all  of  grace.  Each  of 
the  three  parts  of  our  threefold  salvation  is  of 
God's  grace. 

The  third  and  last  part  of  our  salvation,  which 
is  our  glorification,  will  be  brought  to  pass  when 
Christ  comes  again,  as  we  shall  be  caught  up  to 
meet  him  in  our  resurrection  bodies.  We  are 
not  told  that  we  shall  have  to  spring  up  to  meet 
him !  No ;  it  is  going  to  be  done  for  us ;  without 
any  effort  of  our  own  we  shall  be  caught  up, 
and  so  shall  we  ever  be  with  the  Lord  (I  Thess. 
4:17). 

70 


The  Victorious  Life 

The  first  part  of  our  threefold  salvation,  which 
is  our  justification,  has  been  done  for  us.  "You 
did  he  make  alive,  who  were  dead  in  trespasses 
and  sins"  (Eph.  2:1).  You  did  not  make  your- 
self alive;  it  was  done  for  you,  by  the  grace  of 
God  in  Christ  Jesus.  "For  by  grace  are  ye  saved 
through  faith;  and  that  not  of  yourselves:  it  is 
the  gift  of  God"  (Eph.  2:8).  The  dead  man  is 
saved  by  what  God  does  for  him,  not  by  what 
he  does  for  God — for  he  can  do  nothing.  Re- 
member, grace  never  means  a  joint  effort;  it 
does  not  mean  co-operation  between  God  and 
man  to  accomplish  man's  salvation.  God  is  a 
jealous  God ;  he  must  do  it  all,  or  it  will  not  be 
done  at  all.  For  he  knows  that  that  is  our  only 
hope.  Grace  shuts  out  our  worthless,  impotent 
works,  and  works  for  us  in  triumphant  om- 
nipotence. 

If  the  first  and  the  third  parts  of  our  threefold 
salvation  are  wholly  of  God's  grace,  being  ac- 
complished for  us,  not  by  us,  so  also  is  the  second 
part,  or  our  sanctification.  Sanctification  is  only 
another  way  of  saying  the  Victorious  Life. 
Every  Christian  recognizes  that  he  is  justified  by 
faith  and  faith  alone,  and  that  when  he  is  glori- 
fied it  will  be  only  because  of  his  faith  in  Christ, 
being  done  wholly  for  him;  yet  most  Christians 
do  not  realize  that  they  can  have  present  victory 
over  sin  only  on  the  same  terms:  that  they  let 
God  do  it  all  for  them,  and  do  not  try  to  help 
him  or  share  with  him  in  the  work. 


71 


Salvation  from  Sin  Now 

*Tor  if,  when  we  were  enemies,  we  were  rec- 
onciled to  God  by  the  death  of  his  Son,  much 
more,  being  reconciled,  we  shall  be  saved  by  his 
life"  (Rom.  5 :10)  ;  as  Bishop  Moule  has  ren- 
dered this,  "We  shall  be  kept  safe  in  his  life." 

But  what  is  the  difference  between  victory 
over  sin  in  this  way,  and  the  victory  that  is  the 
usual  experience  of  the  Christian?  The  usual 
experience  of  the  Christian  is  that  he  gets  vic- 
tory by  trying  for  it,  instead  of  by  trusting  for 
it.    And  it  is  a  counterfeit  victory. 

The  story  told  of  the  apparently  sweet- spirited 
old  Quaker  lady,  who  seemed  never  to  lose  her 
temper,  illustrates  this.  A  young  girl  had  been 
watching  her  for  some  time,  and  finally  she 
came  to  the  old  lady  and  said,  in  a  burst  of 
enthusiasm,  "How  under  the  sun  do  you  do  it? 
How  is  it  you  always  keep  sweet?  Why,  if  the 
things  happened  to  me  that  I  sometimes  see  hap- 
pen to  you,  I  couldn't  stand  it;  I  should  just 
boil  over." 

"Well,  my  dear,"  answered  the  old  lady,  "per- 
haps I  do  not  boil  over,  but  thee  does  not  know 
what  boiling  is  going  on  inside !" 

And  that  incident  has  often  been  told  as  illus- 
trating real  Christian  victory.  It  is  only  a  coun- 
terfeit. Victory  in  Christ  is  not  to  be  "boiling 
inside"  while  we  successfully  conceal  from  every 
one  how  sinful  we  feel.  Victory  is  being  kept 
from    even   boiling   inside !      Victory,    in    other 


72 


The  Victorious  Life 

words,  is  a  miracle.  It  is  not  the  concealing  of 
something  that  ought  not  to  be  expressed;  it  is 
the  expressing  of  that  which  is  within  us,  or 
Christ. 

An  illustration  of  real  victory,  not  counterfeit, 
is  seen  in  the  life  of  the  young  woman  missionary 
in  India,  who,  after  many  humiliating  failures 
with  an  uncontrollable  temper,  finally  found  that 
she  could  trust  Christ  as  completely  for  her  vic- 
tory as  for  her  salvation.  She  wrote  a  letter  to 
a  friend  about  her  wonderful  new  experience  in 
Christ,  and  as  an  evidence  that  something  new 
had  happened  in  her  life,  she  said:  "Do  you 
know  that  for  three  months  now  I  have  not  only 
not  once  slammed  the  door  in  the  face  of  one  of 
these  stupid  Indian  servants  who  used  to  get 
on  my  nerves  so,  but  I  haven't  even  wanted  to 
once  in  the  three  months !"  That  was  a  miracle. 
The  "boiling  inside"  had  been  done  away  with. 
She  did  not  have  to  try  not  to  slam  the  door ;  the 
old  desire  to  do  so  had  gone.  She  was  expe- 
riencing the  wonder,  the  joy  of  effortless  victory. 
The  Son  had  set  her  free,  and  she  was  free 
indeed. 

Suppose  you  should  unexpectedly  meet  some 
one  who  had  done  you  a  great  injury — had  mis- 
represented you  in  the  most  unfair,  untruthful 
way,  doing  everything  possible  to  injure  your 
reputation.  Suppose  you  had  to  be  with  this 
person  for  a  few  minutes,  in  such  circumstances 
that  you  could  not  avoid  the  meeting,  and  you 


73 


Salvation  from  Sin  Nozv 

must  engage  in  ordinary  conversation  until  the 
time  has  passed.  And  you  are  a  Christian,  in- 
tending to  do  the  Lord's  will  and  show  Christ's 
spirit  in  your  life  at  every  point.  What  would 
be  your  sensations  and  experience  under  such 
circumstances  ? 

You  might  breathe  a  quick  prayer  for  help, 
stifle  down  your  feelings  of  resentment,  talk 
courteously  with  this  enemy  of  yours,  refrain 
from  showing  any  bitterness,  keep  on  talking, 
and  in  your  heart  keep  praying  for  help  and 
asking  the  Lord  to  bring  the  interview  to  an 
end  as  soon  as  possible;  and  thus  pass  through 
the  experience  in  such  a  way  that  a  third  person 
watching  you  would  not  know  what  was  going 
on;  and  then  when  the  incident  was  over  you 
might  praise  God  for  his  delivering  power  and 
thank  him  that  you  had  been  prevented  from  say- 
ing a  single  resentful  or  unkind  word. 

Or  on  the  other  hand,  seeing  what  you  were 
in  for  in  the  encounter,  you  might  remember 
that  Christ  was  your  victory,  thank  him  for 
being  responsible  for  this  whole  test,  without 
effort  praise  him  for  the  Holy  Spirit's  shedding 
abroad  the  love  of  God  in  your  heart  at  that 
moment  for  this  enemy,  and  then  go  on  in  quiet, 
natural  conversation,  continuing  to  praise  God 
moment  by  moment  for  the  wonderful  freedom 
and  effortless  victory  that  he  was  giving  you; 
and,  when  the  minutes  had  passed  and  the  inci- 
dent was  at  an  end,  feel  that  you  were  sorry  that 

74 


The  Victorious  Life 

it  was  over,  because  of  the  marvelous  love  and 
joy  and  freedom  that  had  flooded  your  being 
every  moment  of  the  time.  You  could  honestly 
say  to  that  enemy  that  you  were  sorry  you  had 
to  leave,  when  the  time  for  leaving  came. 

The  one  experience  would  be  a  counterfeit 
victory;  the  other  would  be  the  genuine  thing, 
that  victory  which  only  Christ  can  give,  and 
which  he  can  give  only  when  we  cease  from  our 
own  efforts  and  let  him  do  it  all. 

At  the  end  of  a  day  in  which  all  your  plans 
have  gone  to  pieces,  all  that  you  had  hoped  to 
accomplish  has  failed  of  accomplishment,  nothing 
but  a  succession  of  unexpected  interruptions, 
some  of  them  seemingly  useless,  having  occurred 
— are  you  as  filled  with  joy  and  thanksgiving  at 
the  close  of  such  a  day  as  you  were  at  its  start, 
when  you  looked  forward  happily  to  doing  many 
things  that  you  had  been  eagerly  waiting  for 
an  opportunity  to  do?  If  your  joy  is  just  as 
great  after  all  your  own  plans  have  been 
"spoiled"  through  circumstances  beyond  your 
control,  then  you  know  what  victory  is,  real  vic- 
tory, that  victory  which  is  the  joy  of  the  Lord, 
undef eatable  and  never  failing.  But  the  joy  that 
depends  upon  circumstances  is  a  counterfeit  joy, 
and  has  no  place  in  the  really  victorious  life. 

How  are  we  to  have  this  amazing,  miraculous 
victory  over  sin,  this  freedom  from  the  power 
of  sin? 


75 


Salvation  from  Sin  Now 

The  answer  is  simple.  After  we  have  taken 
the  Lord  Jesus  as  our  personal  Saviour,  we  are 
then  to  yield  wholly  to  him,  and  to  believe  wholly 
on  him.  Surrender  and  Faith  are  the  two 
secrets,  the  two  conditions,  and  the  only  two,  of 
the  victorious  life  of  present  salvation  from  sin. 

"For  Victory — Save :  Buy" ;  thus  reads  a  War 
Savings  poster.    And  it  adds,  "Start  now." 

Use  the  same  letters,  and  change  the  words, 
and  we  read :  "For  Victory — Surrender :  Believe." 
And,  "Start  now!" 

Christ  must  have  all  there  is  of  us  if  we  are 
to  have  him  as  our  victory.  "Present  your  bodies, 
a  living  sacrifice,  holy,  acceptable  unto  God, 
which  is  your  reasonable  service"  (Rom.  12:1). 
Can  we  look  into  the  face  of  our  Lord  Jesus,  by 
faith,  and  say  in  his  strength :  "Lord  Jesus,  I  am 
ready  to  have  thy  whole  will  done  in  my  life, 
now  and  always,  at  every  point,  no  matter  what 
it  costs"?  If  we  can  honestly  say  this,  we  have 
surrendered.  We  need  not  be  troubled  any  more 
as  to  the  surrender  part  of  the  matter. 

Then,  having  done  our  part,  the  only  question 
that  remains  is  whether  Christ  will  do  his  part. 
And,  praise  God,  that  is  not  a  question.  We  do 
not  even  need  to  say  that  Christ  will  do  his  part ; 
better  than  that,  he  is  doing  his  part  now.  His 
part  is  our  victory.  It  is  his  responsibility  to 
bring  us  into  victory  and  keep  us  there.  Is  he 
meeting  his  responsibility?     If  he  is  not,  he  is 

76 


The  Victorious  Life 

not  Christ.  If  he  is  Christ,  he  always  has  been, 
he  is  at  this  moment,  and  he  always  will  through 
time  and  eternity,  meet  his  responsibility. 

Then  we  have  victory  now!  For  we  have 
Christ;  and  Christ  is  our  victory.  He  simply 
asks  us  to  thank  him  that  his  grace  is  sufficient. 
He  pledges  us  his  word  that  sin  shall  not  have 
dominion  over  us,  for  we  are  under  grace  (Rom. 
6:14)  ;  and  his  grace  is  sufficient  for  us  (H  Cor. 
12:9). 

"Faith  does  nothing ;  faith  lets  God  do  it  all." 
Having  yielded  ourselves  up  to  the  mastery  of 
Christ,  having  turned  ourselves  over  to  him  for 
him  to  work  his  whole  will  in  us  and  through 
us,  our  responsibility  is  ended,  so  far  as  victory 
is  concerned.  It  is  God's  responsibility ;  and  God 
is  faithful;  God  is  able  (I  Cor.  1:9;  II  Cor. 
9:8). 

God's  faithfulness  to  me,  through  Jesus  Christ 
my  Saviour,  is  my  victory.  That  is  all  I  need 
to  know.  That  is  my  Rock  of  Ages.  All  eter- 
nity will  not  be  long  enough  to  finish  thanking 
him  for  this. 


77 


BOOKS   AND   PAMPHLETS   FOR 
EVANGELISTIC  WORKERS 


Scofield  Reference  Bible. 

(Oxford  University  Press,  New  York  City.     $2.00  to  $14.00.) 

Christian  Workers*  Testament. 

With  introduction  and  compact  guide  for  the  use  of  Scripture 
in  personal  soul-winning,  by  J.  Wilbur  Chapman  and  Ralph  C. 
Norton.  (The  Sunday  School  Times  Company,  Philadelphia. 
Cloth,  75  cents;  leather,  $1.50;  pigskin,  $2.00.) 

Gospel  of  John,  Underscored  Edition. 

(Bible  House  of  Los  Angeles,  Los  Angeles,  Cal.  33  cents  a 
dozen;  $2.45  a  hundred  copies;  cloth,  45  cents  a  dozen;  $3.45  a 
hundred.) 

Rightly  Dividing  the  Word  of  Truth. 

By  C.  I.  Scofield,  D.D.  (Loizeaux  Bros.,  New  York  City. 
35  cents,  cloth;  15  cents,  paper.) 

Salvation. 

By  Lewis  Sperry  Chafer.  (Philadelphia  School  of  the  Bible, 
Philadelphia.     75  cents.) 

Satan. 

By  Lewis  Sperry  Chafer.  (Christian  and  Missionary  Alliance 
Publishing  Company,  692  Eighth  Avenue,  New  York  City.  60 
cents.) 

Shall  Hell  Be  Vacated? 

By  Jesse  Forrest  Silver.  (Bible  Institute  Colportage  Assoya- 
tion,  Chicago.     15  cents  net.) 

Without  Excuse. 

By  Arthur  J.  Smith,  D.D.  (Glad  Tidings  Publishing  Com- 
pany, Lakeside  Building,  Chicago.  10  cents  each;  three  for  25 
cents;   fifteen   for   $1;   in  leather,   25   cents   each.) 

Taking  Men  Alive. 

By  C.  G.  Trumbull.  (Association  Press,  New  York.  60 
cents,   cloth;    40  cents,   paper.) 

The  Art  of  Soul-Winning. 

By  J.  W.  Mahood.  (Abingdon  Press,  New  York.  25  cents 
net.) 


78 


Answered  or  Unanswered. 

By  Miss  Louisa  Vaughan.  (Missionary  Press  Co.,  1145  North 
Topeka  Avenue,  Wichita,  Kan.     85  cents,  postpaid.) 

How  to  Spesik  Without  Notes. 

By  Robert  E.  Speer.  (The  Sunday  School  Times  Company. 
Philadelphia.     20  cents.)  " 

"Do"  or  "Done." 

By  Charles  H.  Macintosh.  (J.  T.  Dean,  2613  Pennsylvania 
Avenue,  Dallas,  Tex.) 

Twelve  Great  Facts. 

By  James  H.  Brookes,  D.D.  (St.  Louis  Tract  Depot,  1427 
Locust  Street,  St.  Louis,  Mo.  14  cents  a  dozen;  35  cents  a 
hundred;  $1.50  for  500  copies;  $2.50  a  thousand  copies.) 

Ungodly  People,  the  Only  Kind  God  Saves. 

(Bible  House  of  Los  Angeles,  Los  Angeles,  Cal.  25  cents  a 
hundred  copies.) 

A  Spiritual  Awakening. 

By  Charles  G.  Finney.  (Association  Press,  New  York.  5 
cents.) 

"Suppose" 

(Great  Commission  Prayer  League,  808  North  La  Salle  Street, 
Chicago.     Sent  free  of  charge.) 

Studying  the  Second  Coming  for  Yourself. 

By  James  M.  Gray,  D.D.  (Bible  Institute  Colportage  Asso- 
ciation, Chicago.     5  cents  each.) 

Is  the  Truth  of  the  Lord's  Return  a  Practical 
Matter  for  Today? 

T„?7  ,^'  ,^-   Trumbull.      (The   Sunday    School   Times   Company, 
Philadelphia.     4  cents  each;  40  cents  a  dozen,  postpaid.) 

Why  Are  We  to  Believe  the  Bible  Is  Inspired? 

By  I.  M.  Haldeman,  D.D.  Challenging  fearlessly  the  denial 
of  inspiration  so  alarmingly  prevalent  today.  (The  Sunday 
School  Times  Company.  2  cents  each;  20  cents  a  dozen;  fifty 
or  more  at  1  cent  each.) 

What  Is  It  to  Believe  on  Jesus? 

By  I.  M.  Haldeman,  D.D.  Eloquent  with  the  dynamic  of 
God,  comes  a  message  on  God's  extraordinary  method  of 
redemption  for  lost  men.  (The  Sunday  School  Times  Company. 
2   cents   each;   20   cents  a  dozen;   fifty  or  more  at  1   cent  each.) 

Conversations  With  a  Christian  Scientist. 

By  Judson  B.  Palmer,  General  Secretary  Emeritus  of  the 
Galveston  Y.  M.  C.  A.  A  true  story  of  a  Christian  Scientist's 
miraculous  conversion.  (The  Sunday  School  Times  Company. 
2  cents  each;  20  cents  a  dozen,  or  $1.50  a  hundred.) 

79 


The  Life  That  Wins. 

By  Charles  Gallaudet  Trumbull.  This  little  personal  message 
is  now  having  its  opportunity  to  tell  in  seven  different  languages 
of  the  infinite  sufficiency  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  The  author's  own 
edition  of  the  pamphlet,  revised  and  somewhat  fuller  than  in 
its  earlier  forms.  (The  Sunday  School  Times  Company.  2  cents 
each;  20  cents  a  dozen;  $1.50  a  hundred.) 

Real  and  Counterfeit  Victory. 

By  Charles  Gallaudet  Trumbull.  A  plain,  easily  grasped 
statement  of  the  vast  difference  between  real  and  counterfeit 
victory,  and  the  Scriptural  basis  of  real  victory  over  the  power 
of  sin.  (The  Sunday  School  Times  Company.  3  cents  each; 
30  cents  a  dozen;  $2  a  hundred.) 

Victory's  Final  Secret. 

A  message  for  baffled  ones,  and  for  all  who  would  know  and 
take  the  final  step  for  victory  that  is  satisfying  and  Scriptural. 
Printed  in  exceptionally  beautiful  form.  (The  Sunday  School 
Times  Company.     20  cents  a  dozen,  or  75   cents  for  fifty.) 

For  Other  Literature— 

Admirable  leaflets  for  soul-winning  work  may  be  had,  in  large 
varieties,   from: 

Bible  Institute  Colportage  Association,  826  North  La  Salle 
Street,   Chicago. 

Bible  House  of  Los  Angeles,  643  South  Olive  Street,  Lo3 
Angeles,  Cal. 

Asher  Publishing  Company,  261  Minnesota  Street,  St.  Paul, 
Minn. 

Fred  Kelker,  Box  216,  Harrisburg,  Pa. 

Bible  Truth  Depot,  Swengel,  Pa. 

Christian  Life  Literature  Fund,  600  Perry  Building,  Phila- 
delphia. 


80 


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